


Good Catch

by lossit_bay



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: AU, Domesticity, Fluff, M/M, Slice of Life, That's it, maybe no real plot, on a boat
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:48:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 32,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25772359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lossit_bay/pseuds/lossit_bay
Summary: The boys of Stray Kids are living their best life, being gay as they sail the ocean.
Relationships: Everyone/Everyone
Comments: 209
Kudos: 301





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sashimi18](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sashimi18/gifts).



> https://catamaran-outremer.com/en/outremer-45/ This is the boat I'm describing if you're interested

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been edited. Let me know if I made a mistake

“Hyung! The anchor is dragging again!” Jeongin called up through the netting of the catamaran. It didn’t really matter which Hyung answered as long as one of them fixed it without him having to haul himself back onto the boat from his hammock.

“You’ll have to be louder,” Felix said. He was tangled up with Jeongin in the hammock, lazily playing with Jeongin’s fingers as they swayed in the ocean breeze.

“HYUNG!” Jeongin tried again.

“What?” Seungmin asked grumpily. Jeongin couldn’t see him from their position so he was maybe still in the saloon.

“ANCHOR’S DRAGGING.”

“Not my fault, is it?” Seungmin replied and then a second later Jeongin heard him calling to Jisung to relay the news.

Jisung came bounding out of the saloon, bare feet slapping on the fibreglass and jumped down onto the netting between the two hulls of their catamaran, putting Jeongin and Felix’s hammock slung below it dangerously close to the water.

“Careful!” Felix yelped. “You’ll get us wet!”

“Such a shame,” Jisung said. He lay flat on his belly and grinned down at them. “A birdy told me you were chatting shit about my anchoring.”

“Yeah, it is shit,” Jeongin groused. “We’re dragging again. We’ll drift too shallow if you’re not careful and you’ll be in _so_ much trouble if you ground the boat.”

“We’re not going to _run aground,”_ Jisung said, rolling his eyes. “But since you’re so worried, Baby, I’ll do it again. You’ll need to vacate your hammock temporarily though.”

Felix wrinkled his nose. “Don’t want to. Innie is comfy.”

“The comfiest,” Jisung agreed. “But I’m not risking bonking one of you with the anchor when I pull it up so you gotta get out.”

This was why Jeongin had been reluctant to inform the rest of their crew but they were trying to prove to Chan that they could handle the boat without him. Felix stood up first and grabbed for the net above him to steady them. Jisung chased his hands on the netting, racing to press kisses on Felix’s knuckles as the boy moved. When Felix reached the edge of the net he lifted his legs free of the hammock and tightened his abs to swing his legs in an arc over his head and onto the net. Jisung put a hand on his ankle as he touched down to steady him as Felix shifted his grip and pushed himself to safety. Felix always managed to make it look so elegant but when Jeongin tried it by himself he ended up in the water more often than not. Thankfully, Felix reached down to help him with steady arms and Jeongin scrambled onto the net too.

“Are you leaving the hammock?” Jisung asked them belatedly. “It’ll get wet from the water off the chain if it stays there.”

Jeongin exchanged a glance with Felix. _He_ certainly was too much of a clutz to get the hammock up. Felix shrugged. “It’ll dry,” he told Jisung. “We should come inside for a bit anyway. Is it not nearly dinner time?”

“Depends when the fishermen get back,” Jisung retorted. “If they’re going to take much longer I hope they bring octopus.”

“You always want octopus,” Felix retorted. “You want me working the windlass?”

“Yes please, Sunshine,” Jisung replied, pressing a kiss to Felix’s cheek. “We’ll take the anchor up and then I’ll move to the other end of the bay since the sand here appears to be shit.”

“Oh yeah, it’s the sand’s fault,” Jeongin mocked him as he followed Jisung around to the stern. When Jisung went to start the engine Jeongin went inside, blinking at the darkness. His eyes were so adjusted to the bright light off the water that he didn’t notice when he walked into Seungmin. “Ooft.”

“Hey, Baby,” Seungmin greeted him, stealing a hug while Jeongin was disorientated. “Did you have a nap?”

“No,” Jeongin replied. He might have dozed a little. “It’s just bright outside,” he said to excuse his stumbling.

“I know,” Seungmin said. “The washing dried.”

“Clean boxers!” Changbin cheered, pumping his fist in the air at the navigation station.

“We had clean boxers already,” Seungmin said judgmentally. “You better not have been wearing the same pair again.”

“I wasn’t!” Changbin protested, spinning around on the chair to put his hands up. “It’s just that the forward cabin always steals the nice ones. This time I got there first.”

“Is that why I can never find any clothes?” Seungmin grumbled. “You lot are hiding them from each other.”

“No, it’s because your clothes always smell clean and we like seeing you topless,” Jeongin replied, sneaking a kiss on Seungmin’s neck before escaping to Changbin.

“They smell clean because I _clean_ them,” Seungmin said. “Something half this crew could learn to do.”

“But then we wouldn’t be naked as often,” Changbin pointed out. He hadn’t gotten around to putting on a shirt at any point that day and probably wouldn’t, even if it got cold. “You’d miss these guns.” He flexed his arm in Seungmin’s direction and Seungmin rolled his eyes as he smiled.

“I share a bed with you idiot. Those guns are my pillow.”

“And a fucking excellent pillow too,” Changbin turning to show Jeongin and an imaginary audience. “Do you see that? That’s a comfy pillow right there.” He wasn’t wrong. Jeongin was the third person in that cabin and he felt like he got the best deal of all. Seungmin kept it clean and tidy, Changbin was a body pillow and neither of them wriggled or yelled or snored in their sleep.

“FISH!!” Jisung called from the helm.

“About time,” Changbin muttered and they all rushed out to see the approaching dingy, speeding atop its white-crested wake.

“What did you get?” Seungmin called out as the boat pulled closer.

 _Not octopus,_ Jeongin prayed.

Chan held a massive red snapper over his head to cheers and whoops of joy. That would feed all of them for dinner and was well worth the wait. He and Hyunjin had hair bleached from so much time in the salt water as they were always eager to go spear fishing whenever they stopped and it was pushed off their faces, held back with water sticking it down. Both were wearing short wetsuits while Minho had clearly stayed in the boat and still had his long shirt on and his bucket hat to give him some shade.

“Get the barbie on,” Chan said as Minho expertly pulled the dingy into the space between the two hulls at the back of the boat. He slapped the fish down onto the deck by the gutting station, followed by two more, smaller fish.

Changbin ran over and held up the largest fish by its gills. “This is huge, Hyung.”

“Hyunjinnie’s catch,” Chan said, jumping to the boat and steadying the dingy for the other two. “I caught the little ones.”

Hyunjin jumped out next and made a bee-line for Jeongin, arms wide.

“No!” Jeongin yelled, skipping back and pushing Seungmin forwards. “Go away! Go away!”

“Hug, Innie!” Hyunjin cried, chasing him with the intention of soaking him with his damp wetsuit.

“No!” Jeongin said again, running for the netting where he would have more space for evasion maneuvers.

“Watch the lines!” Felix called as the neat coils of rope he’d just made bounced into chaos again.

“Sorry, Hyung!” Jeongin called as he ran past. “Jinnie- Ahh!” In checking his footing he had allowed Hyunin to grab him from behind. Hyunjin wrapped Jeongin in his arms and pressed a sloppy kiss to his neck.

“Got ya,” he whispered. Jeongin could feel his grin on his skin. Now his t-shirt was already salted, he turned in Hyunjin’s arms and kissed him properly.

“Good catch.”

“I thought so too,” Hyunjin grinned cheekily as he pulled back.

Jeongin hit his arm. “I meant the fish.”

“I didn’t,” Hyunin replied. He stepped over to kiss Felix next and apologise for messing up his work. Felix took the apology easily as Hyunjin tilted his head and kissed him deeper. They wouldn’t be anchored before sunset at this rate.

“Hyunjinnie!” Chan called from the back of the boat. “Rinse off before the salt dries on you.”

“He’s busy!” Jeongin called back. Felix had staggered Hyunjin and him back until they were pressed against the windows of the galley and they were making good use of the newfound stability.

“Hyunjinnie!” Chan called again. “Shower first, boys after!” Hyunjin would make a full round of the crew before he went near the shower if he had his way and Jeongin didn’t blame him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a little bit of background to their situation. 
> 
> Also i think im going to pov shift every chapter

"Anything interesting happen this afternoon?" Chan asked as they all started digging in to the snapper, which was so perfectly cooked it was falling apart.

"Got a gig request on the 3RACHA email," Changbin offered. Jisung hadn't heard about that yet and his head snapped up to pay more attention.

"Where?" Chan asked. "Korea?" They were known best there, since the majority of their work was in Korean and there were a few places in Seoul that would give them a show whenever they stopped by.

"America," Changbin replied. He was more interested in the food than the conversation so Chan had to prompt him for information again.

“Where? That might be possible," Chan said. They were in the Caribbean right now so with some hard sailing they could get up the East coast in a couple of weeks.

Changbin shook his head and rushed to swallow his mouthful. "Nah, it's Chicago. I don't know where they heard of us but they clearly don't know we live on a boat. We'd have to leave _The Broken Compass_ docked and fly out or get dropped off near an airport and fly."

Jisung made a face at that. He was not a fan of flying _at all_. Chicago could come to the sea if they wanted to see him. And that would likely be at least three days without five of his seven boyfriends. Over two thirds of them. Seventy-one percent. No.

"I hope you turned them down," he said to Changbin. Performing was great fun but it wasn't high on his priorities right now. High on his priorities right now was eating good food and sprawling across as many bodies as he could. 

"I explained the whole 'we sail the world so we'd need multiple dates for 3RACHA and Stray Kids -I don't know how they found 3RACHA and not Stray Kids- and more planning because we'd have to haul out _The Broken Compass_ in a boat yard somewhere to leave her' thing and they were very apologetic." Changbin didn't breathe at all during his explanation, didn't seem to even consider that he might need to, but they were all experienced in following his rapid explanations.

"Maybe if we do a US tour?" Chan offered as he made sure the remains of the fish was divided up between the people still eating.

Seungmin whined. "We'd have to get a bus. It would take like a month." He didn't need to finish his line of thought- they would be away from home for that long, away from the freedom to act how they wanted. They were often anchored alone, in some isolated bay, with only their own company and they liked it that way. They could blast music as loud as they wanted, walk around as naked as they wanted and kiss whoever they wanted. Even in a shared anchor, world sailors were always a strange bunch- you had to be a little bit crazy to do something like this- and the crew of _The Broken Compass_ were seen as more interesting for their profession then their relationship. 

On land, not everyone in the crew slept well without the rocking of the waves and they often had to separate into different rooms. They caused a scene trying to fit eight people at a table in restaurants, eight people on a busy bus, eight people in a romantic photo op meant for two. Only on stage did it feel right but that wasn’t always worth the hassle it brought with it. Their fans understood and were largely content with the videos they put out of boat life and music production. They probably had the world’s only floating production label and that brought viewers from the music industry as well as the sailing community and gave them a decent income. Album sales gave them a bit more and so they didn’t really need gigs to stay afloat. They still did them when they were in the right area but it was rarely for much profit and not worth stressing about in Jisung’s opinion.

“I said _maybe_ , Puppy,” Chan placated Seungmin and eased Jisung’s worry. “We’ll need to get back to the West Coast to do the crossing to Korea at some point soon so we could _maybe_ fit something in as we go. Not Chicago necessarily. New York, Houston, L.A.?”

“We’re going to sail up to L.A. from the Panama Canal?” Minho asked sceptically. “And then all the way back down to Australia and up again to Korea? Hyung, that would take a year.” It wouldn’t but it would be a good few months at least.

“May. Be,” Chan emphasised. He was their captain but that didn’t mean they had to listen to him. Chan had wanderlust worse than any of them and if it was his choice alone they’d never stay in one place longer than a couple of days. Jisung couldn’t really fault his sense of adventure though since it had brought them all together. He finished his food and leant into Minho’s side, basking in the comfort of home as the others bickered good-naturedly around him. 

Hyunjin reached over and ruffled his hair. “Are you tired from a long day of doing nothing, Sungie?” he asked teasingly.

“I did things,” Jisung protested. He hadn’t been awake yet when they'd set sail this morning but he’d helped tack into the bay they were in now and set anchor… and set anchor again… and again.

“Minho-hyung, you need to teach Jisung-hyung how to set anchor again,” Jeongin called across the table as if he’d read his mind.

“I do?” Minho asked. He shrugged one shoulder to get Jisung to look up at him. “I thought you had it, Babe.”

“It didn’t work,” Jisung whined, butting his head into Minho’s chest. He knew Minho would help him without judgement if he asked but he always felt stupid asking since he’d been on the boat much longer.

“Aww, baby,” Minho cooed, patting his back. “Do you want me to check it before bed?”

“Yes!” Jeongin answered quickly. Jisung flipped him off.

“Yes please, Hyung,” he said quietly as Jeongin cackled. 

Minho winked at him and dropped a kiss to his forehead. “Ok. Before it gets dark. You can come help.” He phrased it like he needed an extra hand but Jisung knew it was for his benefit. Embarrassed, he pushed Minho’s face away.

“Urgh. Hyung, why are you always winking? This is a bad habit you’ve picked up.”

"Oh no. You're being _flirted_ with," Hyunjin said mockingly, handing out beers to those who wanted them. “Such a tragedy. Last time I tried to get Minho-hyung to flirt with me I got a flip-flop to the face.”

“I was _driving,”_ Minho retorted.

“It’s a big ocean,” Hyunjin argued. “You wouldn’t have hit anything.”

“He did hit something,” Seungmin piped up. “You.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i dont know what this is

Changbin had had the same song stuck in his head all day. It couldn’t even be called a song. He didn’t have any words, just the same ‘ooh, ooh, ooh-ah ooh-ah’ on repeat. It was upbeat and catchy but getting on his nerves now. He rested his head against the wall as he brushed his teeth and tried to get the nonsense out of his head by making a new song to the rhythm of his brushes. It didn’t work. He spat out his toothpaste and tried a new tactic. 

“Love?” It was his general pet name so anybody in the vicinity should answer if they loved him, which he sincerely hoped they did.

He got three responses and smiled to himself. He was so goddamn lucky.

“Can someone play some music?” he asked. The good speakers were upstairs in the saloon but they all had music in their souls so there was a smaller speaker tucked into every cabin too and any would be fine. From his position in the middle of the port hull he would be able to hear clearly music played from the cabins at either end or the saloon. Despite being a large boat, it was still a boat and space was tight.

“Me!” Hyunjin called from the forward cabin and Changbin heard him scrambling to connect his phone. He leaned back to see Hyunjin half hanging out of the bed to reach his phone, his t-shirt tangling one arm as he’d stopped mid-way through putting it on.

“No rush, Jinnie,” he laughed. “You can get dressed first. Or undressed, whichever you were doing.” He put his toothbrush back in his mouth and watched as a swell nearly sent Hyunjin completely to the floor.

“I was undressing,” Hyunjin said. He managed to do something on his phone and a heavy bass started booming over soft vocals. Hyunjin grunted as he rolled back onto the bed. “That took too many abs,” he complained and wriggled out of his t-shirt properly.

“Play something else, Hyunjin!” Felix called down from the saloon.

“I like this song!” Hyunjin protested.

“ _We know,”_ Jeongin backed up Felix’s request. “You play it all the time. Don’t you have anything else in your library?”

“Hyunjin’s library is shit,” Jisung added, swinging down the stairs by Changbin and making him wince. He’d seen too many of them fail doing that move and become closely acquainted with the wall but they never learned. Jisung slapped his ass on the way past to forcefully take over the aux cord. Changbin sighed as Jisung launched himself at Hyunjin, holding nothing back, and the two tussled. Neither boy played fair, biting and pinching and kicking. Eventually, Jisung won with a well-timed jab to the armpit. He straddled Hyunjin and ground their hips together until Hyunjin moaned and went limp.

“Sungie..” Changbin didn’t know where to start with the rest of that sentence so he let it hang there. 

“What?” Jisung said, grinning over his shoulder as he hooked up his own phone. “He enjoyed it.”

“That’s not-” The weirdest synth track started playing through the speakers, not at all like Jisung’s normal taste. This was the kind of shit he expected from Jeongin, or Felix. “What the hell is this?”

“Caramelldansen,” Jisung said proudly. “It’s been in my head all day.” He turned his focus back onto Hyunjin who was trying to buck him off… or maybe not that… Surely they weren’t going to start fucking to this brainrot music with him standing right there.

“Caramelldansen!!” Chan cheered upstairs. He must have just come in from outside. “Turn it up!”

“You know this bullshit?” Changbin called up to him. “What language is it even in?”

“Swedish!” Felix replied. Was he the only one that didn’t know this song? “Turn it up, the chorus is coming.”

“Can’t,” Changbin replied, stepping to the side so he could see up the stairs to the saloon. “Hyunsung are fucking on the phone playing it.”

“Booooo!” Chan called down to them, grinning. “At least do the dance, you animals.”

“There’s a dance?” Changbin asked but Felix was already demonstrating. He knew some of the words too. But as cute as Felix looked wiggling his hips it was the lyrics that were burrowing their way into Changbin’s brain.

_ooh, ooh, ooh-ah ooh-ah_

He turned to the two getting progressively less clothed on the bed. “Han Jisung.”

“You wanna join, Binnie-hyung?” Jisung asked breathlessly. 

“Everyone!” Hyunjin suggested, his hands tugging at Jisung’s shorts.

Changbin ignored their offers. He had more important business. “Sung have you been singing this stupid song all day?”

“This is a bop!” Chan refuted from behind him. He reached around Changbin and extracted Jisung’s phone to pump up the volume. He grabbed Changbin’s hand on his way back out. “C’mon Bin. Dance.”

“I’m not-

“Dance.” Chan took Changbin by the wrists and held his hands on top of his head. “Shake your butt, Bin, or I’m putting it on loop.”

"We should vlog this," Seungmin suggested. He'd poked his head down the stairs to witness the chaos.

"We'd get de-monetised for copyright violation," Jeongin pointed out. He was still upstairs, presumably sitting down, but Felix could have him up to dance too for all Changbin knew.

"Also Jinnie and Sungie are fully naked in the background," Minho noted, slotting himself behind Seungmin to stare at them too. "You guys are remembering that we don't have any more clean sheets right now?"

Hyunjin groaned in a very different way and pushed Jisung off of him. "Why didn't you tell us before we got this far?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Minho said sassily. "I didn't realise this was pre-mediated. I was expecting an invite."

"Come suck my dick," Jisung said, stretching out on his back. "There. Now you're invited."

“I’m busy,” Minho announced and left again. The song finally stopped and Changbin breathed a sigh of relief as Chan let him stop dancing.

“Anybody else want to suck my dick?” Jisung called. “Binnie-hyung?”

“I just brushed my teeth,” Changbin excused himself. “If you hadn’t sang that song all day I would have considered it.”

“You’re still considering it,” Hyunjin said with a smirk. “Don’t lie.”

Changbin walked away and pointed shut his cabin door before either of them could seduce him with bedroom eyes.

***

Changbin-hyung,” Jeongin said quietly the next morning as Changbin was getting dressed. Jeongin had been up for a while but he was lounging in the peace of their cabin, reading a book Seungmin was forcing on him.

“Mmm,” Changbin replied.

“You’re singing the song.”

Changbin paused with one foot half-way into his shorts, which was never a good move on a boat. He lost his balance and stumbled into the bed. “I was not,” he said, but the upbeat ‘ooh, ooh, ooh-ah ooh-ah’ was back in his brain. “Innie, Baby, tell no-one,” he begged his youngest boyfriend.

“What’s in it for me?” Jeongin asked with a grin.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2min anyone?

Minho paused in the kitchen in the weak morning light and took stock of his surroundings. The saloon/galley was pretty clean which was nice and the sliding door to outside was open a fraction. Either someone forgot to shut it or he wasn’t the first up. And since Chan was sound asleep in his bed he knew exactly who it would be.

Seungmin was standing out of the bow of the starboard hull. He was facing the land so Minho made sure to make a noise as he approached but Seungmin didn’t show any sign of noticing him until Minho slipped his arms around his waist. Seungmin’s waist was so small you could hug him twice over at once and Minho took the opportunity to do so whenever he could. 

Seungmin hummed and let Minho pull them together. Most of his focus was still on the controller in his hand operating the drone flying somewhere above them.

“Did you get the sunrise?” Minho asked.

“No, it’s just aerial shots,” Seung replied. “I’m nearly done if you want to do the landing and I’ll catch?” Seungmin was by far the best of them at getting drone shots and took great pride in it but even for him flying the drone down steadily and catching it without injury was a challenge.

“Sure,” Minho offered and took the controller from him. Minho liked to drive the drone fast and the resulting footage was normally cut to prevent making their viewers sick. He steered it back to the boat and once around the mast before lowering it above their heads. The high-pitched whine of it got louder and Seungmin stepped away to get into position to catch it. “Hand out, Puppy,” MInho told him, maneuvering the drone to descend slowly a little in front of Seungmin. It took a lot of confidence to catch a drove, especially one as expensive and essential as theirs when it was so easy to lose it over the side and so difficult to replace.

“I got it!” Seungmin cheered and flipped the drone upside down to turn it off. “Wanna see the footage?”

***

Seungmin had planned to crop the footage to just the ambient shots- the island, the sun rising behind the mast, the waves lapping on the shore- but when Chan got ahold of the SD card hours later he declared that the whole recording was going in. Minho could see why it was cute. You could see odd angles of Seungmin at the start as he turned on the camera with a little frown and set the drone on the deck before taking off wobbly. And then when most of the panning shots are finished there are a few frames where you can see Minho coming out of the saloon before the drone flies along the beach. Presumably, as this is happening Minho reaches Seungmin and starts cuddling him because the shot goes shaky for a moment and then Minho has the controls and the panning shots are replaced by action blur. The best bit, Felix said, was that you can hear Minho at the end call Seungmin ‘Puppy’ in the softest voice that was normally reserved for off-camera moments. Minho felt oddly shy that their viewers were going to see that. Later in the day, they were both normally more animated and the peaceful way he acted with Seungmin in the early morning was a bit of an accidental secret, even from their other boyfriends.

“What other secrets have you been hiding?” Hyunjin teased them, poking Minho in the side with his foot. “Maybe I should wake up early one day to find out.” 

“You do that,” Minho told him, confident that it would never happen.

“If I wake up early will you cuddle me too, Hyungie?” Hyunjin asked tilting his head to pout cutely at him.

“I cuddle you,” Minho said, pushing Hyunjin away. “You’re just being spoiled by everyone so you don’t know what a normal level of physical contact is.”

“I need more,” Hyunjin replied and climbed into Minho’s lap. Minho contemplated pushing him off again but Jeongin had the nail polish out so he locked his arms around Hyunjin and let the maknae do his worst.

“Filming in five,” Chan announced on his way out of the saloon. They had stayed anchored all day to let everyone get the work done they needed to and recharge in their own ways. With eight people in such a small space they had found set personal time was important and if they were anchored some people could go to the shore to go for a run or to a cafe or something more in tune with normal life. It helped prevent hostility growing and made the time together more special. Down time had ended now though and everyone was back on The Broken Compass. Chan had planned some boat-related content to go with the footage of them sailing the day before, the drone footage from that morning and probably some vlog content from someone from today. Minho hadn’t done any to-camera work today, instead charting potential routes to relay to the others and checking the forecast to make sure they were out of the line of incoming storms. He would like it if they started planning for a pacific crossing now if it was happening because it was still a long way to Korea he didn’t want to take risks in hurricane season.

“ALL HANDS ON DECK!!” Chan called loudly from the netting at the bow. That was their cue.

Minho stood slowly and waited for the stampede to pass first. Jisung, Felix and Seungmin elbowed each other out of the way in their race out the door, yelling and insulting each other, and Changbin wailed up from the bathroom that he was still peeing and this was unfair. Jeongin tumbled across the boat from the seating at the stern, leaving only Hyunjin unaccounted for. Minho decided to risk it and stepped out from behind the table. He paused in the doorway. Hyunjin had been awfully quiet.

“Hyunjinnie?” he called down the stairs. “Princeling? Your servants require your presence!” His voice must have carried through the open window because the boys outside laughed. 

“I think he had headphones on,” Seungmin suggested and Minho resigned himself to collecting Hyunjin. Changbin was going to make it outside first at this rate.

“Princeling,” Minho called, knocking on the wall of the forward cabin to make it vibrate enough to get Hyunjin’s attention. Hyunjin looked up guiltily and pulled off his headphones. “All hands on deck,” Minho relayed. “Come on, we’re last.”

‘All hands on deck’ was taken very literally on The Broken Compass. It was one of their many inside jokes. Chan was almost always the one to make the call and then they were all to come running for a task. When Minho and Hyunjin arrived on the netting the other boys were in various states of contortion to touch the deck or netting.

“Hurry up!” Jisung exclaimed. His butt was sticking up, limbs sprawled as if he’d made a dive to touch the netting before the others. He probably had. Hyunjin touched the deck before Minho did because Minho delayed obeying the order to slap every available butt in the vicinity. It was another reason he preferred to let the kids sprint past first. Jeongin had the sense to sit down first so his was unavailable but Seungmin was the least flexible person Minho had ever met and was in prime position for a full wind up. He got it. 

“Minho-hyung,” Felix whined. His face was red from being upside-down for so long. “This is supposed to be about speed.” It was, and Minho would normally at least pretend to race but he had lost when he decided to go find Hyunjin so he might as well enjoy himself. Excruciatingly slowly he reached down with straight legs to touch the deck. His legs started to burn near the bottom but he wouldn’t have to hold the position for long.

“ALL HANDS ON MINHO!” Chan commanded and the other boys were set free, racing towards him from all angles. He was quickly pushed to the ground by Seungmin (he deserved that) and tickled as punishment. Jisung even sneaked in a kiss where the camera couldn’t see. It was a punishment Minho would gladly endure again.


	5. Chapter 5

The competition Chan had designed had a dual purpose. Foremost, it was a fun activity that their viewers would enjoy watching them do, but beneath that it told him how confident his crew were with the essentials of nautical life and who needed practice before they headed for the open sea.

The boys were seated in pairs on the netting in front of him, a stretch of rope coiled between them with a neatly burned end in each of their right hands. (Jeongin got a rope to himself because it really was a maknae on top kind of boat.) Pride swelled in his chest that they all followed his leadership so unfalteringly. Few captains had that privilege and perhaps none bar him had their crew’s hearts as well as their trust and loyalty. The position should feel fragile but it was as solid as the boat beneath his feet. Just because it was moving and responding to the changing conditions it didn’t mean it wouldn’t last. 

“We have a pop quiz!” Chan announced enthusiastically.

“Booo!” Jeongin replied, shaking a fist. “Death to education!” When Chan had first met him he had been a listless high school student and it had taken a lot of bargaining (from both Chan and his parents) to convince Jeongin to finish his secondary education with the promise of joining the crew of _The Broken Compass_ should he do it _._ He had been eager to learn about the boat and how they sailed her, soaking information like a sponge, but at any mention of intentional education he revolted.

“If you get the highest score I’ll divide the cake by ten and give you an extra slice,” Chan bargained with him quickly. That would motivate most of them, and Minho, whom it wouldn’t, would go along with it for the ease it granted. True enough, friendly jeers broke out between the younger boys at the prospect of extra dessert to lord over the others. Minho sent Chan a secret smile at that.

 _You can get something else,_ Chan mouthed to him, making sure his lips wouldn’t be readable from the camera. Their viewers likely knew the arrangement on _The Broken Compass_ wasn’t entirely platonic but the crew had never explicitly said what they were to each other and they tried to keep anything inappropriate for younger viewers off camera. Still, if there was someone out there that read Jisung and Changbin’s competition to see who could get a kiss from everyone the fastest as platonic… that person must have some really great friends.

“Hyungs!” Jeongin called tiredly while Chan was daydreaming of the raw footage from that competition. The kids quietened down and Jeongin turned back to Chan only to sigh. “ _Channie-hyung.”_

“I’m paying attention!” Chan protested, trying to shake the image of Changbin pinning Seungmin to the bed from his mind.

“Get on with it,” Seungmin prodded. “Minho-hyung’s already made a noose and soon he’s going to use it.” Minho had indeed made a noose with neat even coils and was testing it on Jisung’s hand.

“Min, undo the noose,” Chan said. “And give Sungie back his end of the rope.”

“This is knot skills, right?” Minho asked. Chan hadn’t told him what the video was about but as usual he was incredibly perceptive. “I made a knot more complicated than any of the ones you are going to test us on so I’ve already won the competition.”

“I had actually hoped you could all manage the knots without difficulty,” Chan explained, “since they kind of hold our house together.”

“I stand by using a bowline knot in all situations,” Jisung piped up.

“Annnd that’s why I’m getting you to practice.”

The first knots were easy- Jisung’s favourite, the bowline; a figure of eight; a reef knot; a clove hitch (which Jeongin held up first, tied around his middle finger). Then Chan made the mistake of asking for a round turn and two half hitches and all hell broke out. Hyunjin and Seungmin worked together as Chan had expected them all to do and had two awkward round turn and two half hitches’ crammed next to each other on the railing in no time. Changbin was left suddenly empty handed however as Felix wrenched the rope from his grip and _ran_ god knows where in search of an anchoring point. Minho and Jisung’s rope was discarded on the netting as they started a slapping fight with their eyes closed for control and Chan was too distracted watching them to notice Jeongin sneak up on him and pull his arm straight out to loop his rope around. In seconds he had a neat knot anchored to Chan’s arm.

“Um,” Chan said, lifting his arm up but before he could get any further Jeongin took the rope that was left and tied a second knot on Chan’s other arm.

“Two for the price of one,” he said proudly, kissing Chan’s lips and retreating to his spot. 

Chan hadn’t seen the rest of the Minsung fight but presumably Minho had won because Jisung was sulking. Minho didn’t have the rope though. It was tied up nicely next to Hyunjin and Seungmin’s efforts with Changbin standing proudly next to it.

“I DID IT!” Felix called from the stern of the boat. “WAS I FIRST?!”

“Not even close!” Jeongin called back gleefully and Felix came tumbling back to the netting with a frown.

“Who won?” he asked.

“Not me,” Chan said, trying to shake the hitches loose on the rope trying his arms together. “Innie, free me?” he asked his youngest boyfriend with a pout.

“What’s in it for me?” Jeongin grinned.

“Mutiny!!” Jisung cheered. “Tie Channie-hyung to the mast!”

“Do not-!” Chan started but the boys were faster at undoing knots than they were at tying them. By the time Minho had scooped Chan up and set him down with his back to the mast there were three ropes waiting to tie him to it. Seungmin had even thoughtfully brought the camera along. Chan stood still for a minute, letting them have their fun, before asking,

“So, who is going to be the new captain?”

The hands tying ropes to his body stilled.

“Dibs not,” Hyunjin said quickly. He held up his hands in surrender. Seungmin, Felix and Jeongin quickly copied his action. Jisung and Changbin looked contemplative and Chan was proud of them for it. Each of them would make a great captain and he was glad they were slowly gaining the confidence to consider it. Minho could also easily be the captain. Chan knew it and he knew it, but he had zero interest in the position. Still, he stayed quiet while the others thought. 

“Do you want to make the decisions next time there’s a storm?” Chan asked to speed up Jisung and Changbin’s verdict. The ropes tying him to the mast were thin, picked out so it would be easy to tie knots in them, but it meant that they were cutting into his skin a little and a cleat on the mast was digging into his back.

“No,” Jisung said quickly, actually stepping back. “No, I don’t want to do that.” Chan mentally noted ‘confidence with storms’ as a thing to improve with Jisung.

“Bin? You’re doing the calls with Outremer now?” Chan asked. Every time a part broke or something sounded off or the electrics started playing up Chan would call the company that designed their catamaran and carefully walk through the problem with them. He’d make the big decisions as to whether they were still safe to sail or if they needed emergency maintenance. It was a stressful part of being captain because getting advice remotely left a lot of room for mis-diagnosis and the safety of his crew was in his hands. Chan was a lot more comfortable making those decisions now as he knew boats, and their boat in particular, better but it was still a heavy weight on his shoulders when after a call he made the decision that the problem wasn’t urgent. They were so often far from help on _The Broken Compass_ and the worry never really left that perhaps he was wrong, even when the problem was minor and he was sure his decision had been right. Chan knew Changbin could do it but it wasn’t the kind of burden you could ask someone to take, and certainly not someone you loved as much as Chan loved Changbin.

Changbin shook his head shyly and if Chan had been free to move his body as he willed he would have tilted Changbin’s head up and kissed it. Unfortunately, he was still tied to the mast.

“So…” Chan said. “I’m seeing a problem with this mutiny.”

“Minho-hyung could be captain!” Jisung protested.

“Minho-hyung _could,”_ Minho agreed. “Minho-hyung _won’t.”_

“Does this mean we have to untie him?” Felix asked

“After dinner?” Seungmin suggested cheekily.

“Yup, after dinner,” Felix agreed. Chan watched them all run off giggling and protested accordingly but not even seconds later Seungmin was the first back, camera now gone.

“Hi, Channie-hyung,” He said breathlessly, leaning against Chan’s front. The others piled on in their eagerness to return and Chan groaned as the cleat on the mast pressed further into the bruise it had made on his back.

“Ow, guys. Please.”

The ropes were off him in seconds and soft touches soothed his skin. “Sorry,” Hyunjin whispered. “We thought it was funny.”

“It was funny,” Chan assured him. He used his long arms to catch as many of them in a hug as possible. “Is the camera off?”

“Yep,” Seungmin answered, his lips mouthing the word into Chan’s neck.

“Can we make out on the netting?” Chan requested. In an eight-person relationship they all wouldn’t fit on a regular bed and while the cabins had double beds it was a squeeze to get everyone in, let alone do anything. The netting on the catamaran however… was quite possibly Chan’s favourite place in the whole world and it fit all eight of them just fine.

“Is that an order, Captain?” Jisung asks from under Chan’s armpit. There must be at least four boys in his arms right now. He counted. It was five, and Hyunjin and Felix were latched onto his back anyway.

“It is an order,” Chan said. “You must be kissing someone on the netting for the next half an hour at least or I’ll make you walk the plank.”


	6. Chapter 6

Hyunjin had the longest hair among them. He wanted it to come down to the middle of his back but he enjoyed getting his hair cut too much ever let it get that long so it was normally down to his shoulders. They'd all had a shot at trying to cut it with varying success. Hyunjin didn't mind, he was mostly there for the attention and there was always room for Minho to fix someone's mistakes. Right now it was barely past his shoulders but he wanted it cut again. 

"Seungminnie," Hyunjin said and waited for his boyfriend to look up. If Seungmin said he should do it then he definitely should and if Seungmin said he shouldn't he could just go to someone else until he got the answer he wanted.

"You want to cut your hair," Seungmin said, looking up from his notebook.

"How di-" Hyunjin gasped.

"You've been playing with the ends for the last ten minutes," Seungmin cut him off. "You know you wouldn't get so many split ends if you stopped bleaching it."

"It's the ocean!" Hyunjin protested. It was from being in the ocean... partially.

"Sure," Seungmin replied. His own hair was just ever so slightly bleached from black to dark brown. Hyunjin knew it really was from the extra sun and sea they got it here and not a bottle like Hyunjin's was. Seungmin wasn't really one to mess with his appearance. He rarely wore jewellery, rarely wore make-up, rarely dyed or bleached his hair, which meant that when he _did_ change things up Hyunjin often forgot how to breathe for a moment.

"Can we do something with your hair too?" Hyunjin asked.

"What like?" Seungmin asked and excitement fizzed in Hyunjin veins at the opportunity he was being presented.

"We could bleach it?" Hyunjin suggested with a grin. "You'd be very pretty with blonde hair." He reached over to pat Seungmin's head and was amazed at how smooth his hair was in comparison to his own.

"Or we could not," Seungmin countered, taking Hyunjin's hand out of his hair to link their fingers together. 

"What's not happening?" Chan said absently as he came to rummage in the locker under the seat next to them. He was fixing something but he was always fixing something.

"Bleaching Minnie's hair," Hyunjin explained. "He's going to let us do something though."

"I did not say that," Seungmin argued. "I was just open to hearing suggestions."

Chan looked up and studied Seungmin for a moment. "Red," he said. "I want Cherrymin to make a comeback." Seungmin had first boarded The Broken Compass with cherry red hair, hand in hand with a black-haired Felix. Hyunjin had forgotten about that. He'd seen them nearly every day since and it was hard to notice the gradual changes but thinking back they'd lost a lot of baby fat since then. He probably had too. 

"If I dye my red, it will fade to pink almost immediately," Seungmin said.

"And?" Chan replied. 

“And I don’t want pink hair,” Seungmin said. “No offense, Baby,” he added as Jeongin stepped out of the saloon and caught the end of the conversation.

“I take great offense,” Jeongin retorted, looking dramatically disgusted. His expression disappeared almost as soon as it appeared. “Is Hyung dying his hair?” he asked Seungmin cutely.

Seungmin shook his head. “I was messing with Hyunjinnie. He’s going to cut his hair again.”

Hyunjin stuck out his bottom lip and tried to look as hurt as possible to make Seungmin guilty for tricking him but Seungmin just grinned. Hyunjin could never stay mad at him when he smiled. “Ok, fine,” he conceded. “But we’re freeing your forehead.”

“Free the forehead!” Chan chanted. He’d found the part he wanted and dropped it on the table before reaching over and pushing Seungmin’s fringe back. “Free the forehead!” 

Seungmin batted him off shyly. “No!”

“No!” They mocked him in unison.

***

Hyunjin had completely forgotten about cutting his hair until Chan brought it up again at dinner. (The previous conversation had derailed into ‘who can make Seungmin blush the most?’ Hyunjin had won.) Felix offered to wield the scissors so after dinner Hyunjin sat out on the chair at the helm with his t-shirt stripped off and his hair dripping cold water from the hosing Minho had given him. His hair only had to be damp to keep it straight while Felix cut it but Minho loved to be ‘helpful’.

“I’m cold,” he complained as the light wind dried the water on his body.

“Tragic,” Changbin commented. Nobody else offered sympathy, sincere or otherwise.

“Where to, Hyunnie?” Felix asked once Hyunjin’s hair was combed straight.

“Make him bald!” Jisung suggested from inside.

“DO NOT MAKE HIM BALD!” Jeongin countered aggressively from the hull under Hyunjin’s feet. Hyunjin heard him through the open door _and_ through the fibreglass. He liked to sit and plait tiny braids in Hyunjin’s hair sometimes and while he wouldn’t say so he’d be upset if Hyunjin’s hair was short.

“Just a little, Lix,” Hyunjin said. “I need to still tie most of it back.”

“Got it!” Felix said confidently and twirled the top section of Hyunjin’s hair up, tying it out of the way with one of the many hair ties on Hyunjin’s offered wrist. Hyunjin revelled in the sensation of the gentle snips and in no time Felix was done with his first attempt. He came around the front of Hyunjin’s head and stuck his tongue out of the corner of his mouth as he compared the length at either side of Hyunjin’s face.

“All good?” Hyunjin teased. Felix was a perfectionist so there was no way he would be satisfied yet.

“Nearly,” Felix mumbled, taking the scissors to his hair again. After a couple more corrections Hyunjin pulled Felix’s hands down and tugged at the strands either side of his face to measure the difference himself.

“It’s good, Sunshine,” Hyunjin assured him. “Are you risking the framing yourself or are you conceding?”

“Con-?” Felix tilted his as if it might tip the correct translation into his brain.

“Too difficult?” Hyunjin asked, holding out a lock from his temple that used to graze his cheekbone but was now down to his mouth.

“Yes, I’d fuck that up,” Felix agreed. “Who do you want me to call?”

“Not Innie,” Hyunjin joked. Jeongin was notoriously clumsy, to the point he had the transient nickname ‘Shit Hands’ on one of their previous crossings for the amount of things that broke or were dropped overboard when left in his possession.

“Shall I just yell ‘Hyung’ and see who answers first?” Felix suggested. It was a tried and tested method used even by Changbin who only had the choice of two. Chan sometimes countered by yelling ‘Dongsaeng!’ until someone appeared but most of them knew better than to answer that and end up saddled with a job. 

“I don’t want Changbin-hyung,” Hyunjin said.

“Then pray,” Felix said but gave Hyunjin no time to do so. “Hyung!”

“You have chosen to weaponise me,” Minho said, appearing from nowhere and taking the scissors from Felix even as Chan called out ‘Yeah?’ from the saloon. “Good choice.”

“Bad choice,” Felix muttered but stepped back to let Minho near Hyunjin’s face with a sharp implement on a moving boat. Hyunjin momentarily questioned why he liked getting his hair cut so much.

“Right, Princeling,” Minho said, tilting Hyunjin’s chin up. “Stay still. Lix- tell me if there’s a gust coming.” Minho was ambidextrous, which was incredibly useful in this kind of situation, and he was done in under a minute. He put the scissors between his teeth and fluffed Hyunjin’s hair. “Mwraghf!” he said enthusiastically. Presumably that meant his trim had gone well. Hyunjin slowly lifted his hands, giving Minho time to tell him to stop and when no order came he pulled his hair back into a ponytail to see where his new hair style would sit. The top half of his hair tied back easily, the ends soft and spiky to the touch, and shorter strands fell forward around his face.

“Thanks Hyung,” Hyunjin said. He would kiss Minho but Minho still had scissors in his mouth and that was asking for a trip to A&E. Minho mimed hosing Hyunjin down and Hyunjin waved his hands in front of him to ward off the imagined water. “No thanks.”

Minho took the scissors out his mouth. “Lixie, do you want itchy hairs in your bed or do you want me to spray the Princeling down?”

Hyunjin made a noise of protest but he knew it would go unheard. Felix took his eyes off the water and turned to smile at Hyunjin. “Very pretty, Hyunnie. But yes, you don’t get to come to bed until you’ve washed off the hairs.”

“Most of them blew away,” Hyunjin lied. Minho had the hose started again, the scissors back between his teeth.

“Princeling, come over here and bend over!” he called from the back of the boat, words slurred around the scissors. “Don’t make me waste water!” 

“That’s what she said!” Jisung crowed from somewhere as Hyunjin reluctantly went to get it over and done with. After his ‘shower’ he could get a fluffy hair dry from someone and a cuddle.

“Can you believe people pay money to hear what he has to say?” Minho grumbled good-naturedly as Hyunjin leant over the back of the boat.

“Can you believe we charge people money to hear what he has to say?” Hyunjin replied.

Chan was waiting with a towel when Hyunjin was rinsed off and he wrapped Hyunjin in it, arms and all, before squeezing him tight. “Nothing too wild,” he commented on Hyunjin’s hair. 

Hyunjin hummed as he warmed up in his arms. “Split ends mostly.” He wriggled until Chan loosened his grip. “Do you think it’s too early for pyjamas?” 

It was never too early for pyjamas and soon Hyunjin was bundled up in the Hyungs’ cabin with Changbin in his lap and Jeongin braiding his hair. The guide to one of Jisung’s new songs was playing over the speakers and he was in complete bliss.

“Comfortable, bed-stealers?” Minho asked, crawling up onto the bed next to them to collect something from the shelf.

“So comfortable,” Changbin replied lazily. “Can we do a bed-swap tonight? I don’t want to move.”

“Who am I getting?” Minho asked as he knocked Jeongin back onto the pillows to attack him with kisses. “I have to hear the dinosaur snores enough as it is.”

“He’ll hate that you’re calling him that,” Changbin noted.

“That’s why he does it,” Hyunjin answered for Minho as Minho’s mouth was otherwise occupied. “You could take my spot?” he suggested. “Get smothered by Sungie and Lix instead?”

“Deal!” Minho said, pulling off of Jeongin who lay there in a daze. “Don’t drool on my pillow.”

“No promises,” Hyunjin grinned as Minho tucked his hair behind his ear and leant forward to slot their lips together. He pulled back after a moment, not wanting to speed things up at that moment. “Don’t drool on mine.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the tender is not made of chicken. its the name for the little boat used to take people to shore when the yacht is anchored. In this case they have a ridged inflatable dingy with a motor so thats what Chan is using.

Today was a boat jobs day and Jisung was trying his best to get out of it by being anywhere the hyungs weren’t. He was lazy, he could admit that, and he just didn’t see the problem with a lot of things staying in perfect cleanliness all the time. Sure, check the sails and lines for wear and tear, and make sure all the rachets are running smoothly but _God_ why did the hulls need scrubbed down so much?

“Sung, you’re on starboard hull cleaning with Lix,” Chan informed him, finding him easily on the back steps. He was dressed entirely in black from his snapback to his flip flops, a man on a mission. That mission, unfortunately, uncluded Jisung doing manual labour. Chan did his best to be fair and give everyone a turn on the worst jobs but Jisung was pretty sure he would rather be doing anything else.

“Can I swap?” he asked with a whine.

“Seungminnie and Hyunjinnie are on the port side and I’m running into town for wifi,” Chan said. “You’re welcome to try and convince Bin or Innie though.” Minho was out because, despite living on a boat, he was shockingly bad at swimming, barely managing to paddle back to the boat if he was pushed off. Jisung considered his options but realistically there was no way Changbin or Jeongin could be convinced to take a morning in the water. He wrinkled his nose.

“Can I get the buoyancy?” he asked Chan, flirting slightly to increase the chances of getting what he wanted. They only had two buoyancy vests because they took up so much space and everyone had a sleek inflatable lifejacket that they could wear in rough weather. Cleaning without one was much harder work as you had to constantly kick to stay afloat while your hands worked.

“Yeah, you and Minnie can have them to start,” Chan said distractedly. He was already working on his next task, readying the tender for his trip. “I think they’re in the starboard locker.”

***

Hyunjin and Felix were far too eager to get in the water, diving headfirst before coming back to get their gear. Jisung stood on the steps and dipped on foot in timidly as they splashed each other. The water wasn’t cold but it was wet and he really wasn’t in the mood. If he stalled for long enough Felix would get to work and he wouldn’t have to do as much.

“The sooner we get in the sooner we get out,” Seungmin offered from behind him. He was putting his flippers on. Jisung hadn’t even got that far.

“If it’s the same amount of time you know I’m going to procrastinate it,” Jisung argued.

“Losing team gives the winning team a reward?” Seungmin suggested, slipping into the water and turning back around to make a lewd expression. Jisung’s eyes opened wide and his heart raced.

“Seungminnie!” he exclaimed as if horrified. In reality, he was trying to buy time to put his flippers on. Seungmin kicked back to the steps, ducked his head under the water and took a mouthful of water to spray up into Jisung’s face. He laughed as he pushed away again, very pleased with himself, and Jisung couldn’t help but smile too. He loved it when Seungmin was having fun.

“Ji, move your ass!” Felix’s deep voice called from around the side of the boat. “I’m not doing this by myself!”

“I’m coming!” Jisung called back.

“But will you be later?” Seungmin mused with a shit-eating grin. Why was it so hard to be annoyed with Seungmin when he was happy even when he was actively bullying you?

“Yes. Yes, I will,” Jisung said confidently and jumped in, aiming to spray Seungmin as much as possible. He mostly missed. The water wormed its way into the air pockets in his wetsuit and he squirmed unhappily. The sooner he started the sooner it would be over and the sooner he would benefit. Seungmin was already gone and started cleaning his side of the boat. “Felix! Scrub faster, we have rewards to win!” Jisung yelled, as he grabbed his scrubbing brush.

“What rewards?” Hyunjin called from his side of the boat.

“Your mouth!” Jisung screamed back, kicking as fast as he could round to Felix to make a game plan.

Unfortunately for all of them, scrubbing the hulls free of algae, barnacles and other sealife was a long slog of a task. Seungmin was the first to call a break and Jisung was more than happy to take it. His arms were sore and his legs were tired and he kept accidently headbutting the boat when a wave hit. Felix was even more tired as he was diving to the bottom of the hull and had to hold his breath all the time.

“Time out?” Seungmin yelled. “Jin is turning blue!”

“I’m _fine,”_ Jisung heard Hyunjin say. Hyunjin had been the only one of them to not put on a wetsuit before they started and he was paying the price for freedom now. The waters of the caribbean were warm but after a long time under the shadow of the boat without swimming about to keep warm it chilled you.

“YES!” Felix yelled back. “I need a break!”

They swam round and flopped down on the netting like fish. Hyunjin crawled over last and lay across Felix’s chest once the Australian boy had stripped off his wetsuit to his waist. He closed his eyes for a nap and hummed happily.

“You’re a little cold, Hyunnie,” Felix noted worriedly. Jisung saw his eyebrows draw together as he touched Hyunjin’s neck to get a gage on his core temperature. “Do you want to go dry off and put a jumper on?”

“Mmmf,” Hyunjin said. “You’re warm.”

“Your lips are a funny colour,” Seungmin told him. “Either you got too cold or you were diving too much.” Jisung thought Hyunjin’s lips took fine and he’d spent enough time staring at them to know.

“Oh my god, stop worrying,” Hyunjin complained. “I’ve been doing this longer than you. I’m fine.” His words slurred slightly though. Jisung crawled over and lay across Hyunjin’s back, lending his body heat just in case. Hyunjin wasn’t that cold so he’d probably just tired himself out. Seungmin was a known worrywort.

“I want snacks,” Felix moaned from the bottom of the pile.

“I want coffee,” Hyunjin added from the middle.

“Mmmm,” Jisung hummed in agreement. “Seungminnie?” he sang sweetly.

“You can fuck off,” Seungmin retorted, already guessing what Jisung was going to ask. Annoyingly, Jisung hadn’t yet found a reliable flirting method for Seungmin. He’d find it soon though, he just had to watch Hyunjin’s technique more closely. Seungmin would always do what Hyunjin wanted him to.

Hyunjin held out his fist towards Seungmin. “Rock paper scissors?” he offered and they joined him, still stacked on top of each other. On the third throw Felix picked scissors against three rocks and Seungmin bashed his fingers into the netting harmlessly with his fist. Their pile was toppled but Jisung climbed into Hyunjin’s lap while they waited for Felix to serve them.

“Are the hulls done?” Minho asked, poking his head out of one of the storage lockers. Jisung hadn’t even realised Minho was in there and he jumped, making Hyunjin tighten his grip on Jisung’s leg as he was subsequently startled.

“Half,” Seungmin offered as Minho climbed out and shut the hatch. He was stretched out with his face tilted up to the sun next to Jisung and Hyunjin. Unlike Jisung, he’d stripped out of his wetsuit completely and had hung it up to dry, leaving him only in his trunks. Both Jisung and Hyunjin were unabashedly ogling and Seungmin was pretending not to notice but Jisung knew he’d flexed his abs a minute ago just for them.

“If you’re not finished then why are you sunbathing?” Minho asked.

“I’m solar powered,” Seungmin retorted. Minho came and stood directly over him so Seungmin was in shadow. Seungmin opened his eyes and glared at Minho. “Do you want to swim, Hyung?” he threatened.

“You wouldn’t,” Minho grinned smugly, safe in the knowledge that Seungmin was too soft at heart to push him in. “I’d cry.”

“I would,” Hyunjin piped up. Hyunjin had a death wish. Jisung quickly pulled up his legs and rolled out of Hyunjin’s lap, out of the line of fire. Minho tilted his head and fixed Hyunjin with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. A warning. “I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t!” Hyunjin quickly back-tracked, lifting his arms over his head to protect himself.

“Good,” Minho said, still smiling his insincere smile. “Now if you will excuse me I have _jobs to do_.”

“We’ll do it!” Jisung called after him exasperatedly, catching Minho’s not-subtle dig at them. Sure, if it was just him or just him and Hyunjin maybe they’d slack off but _Seungmin_ was involved. The job was going to be done perfectly.

And it was, after a coffee and cake break. Hyunjin was convinced to put on his wetsuit for the rest of the job and they swapped the buoyancy aids so Seungmin and Jisung dived their halves of the hulls for the end.

“Done!” Jisung called as he reached the prow of their hull, meeting up with the part Felix had already cleaned.

“No way!” Hyunjin called back. “I bet you cheated!”

“I did not!” Jisung said, affronted. He swam around to their side of the boat and Seungmin popped up beside them, taking a deep breath and shaking his fringe out of his eyes.

“You finished?” he asked, hooking one hand around the shoulder of Hyunjin’s buoyancy aid and dragging him down slightly to get a rest from kicking. Hyunjin kicked harder to compensate as his face half-submerged and flared his nostrils to breathe heavily through his nose as his mouth stayed under the water. Jisung didn’t know why he didn’t just tell Seungmin off but if Hyunjin wanted to risk drowning that was none of Jisung’s business.

“Yep!” Jisung told Seungmin proudly. “Pay up.”

Seungmin rolled his eyes. “Right this second? Are you that desperate for my attention you’re willing to drown for it, Hannie?” he mocked. Memories rose in Jisung’s mind at the words. _Wait a minute- was Seungmin **deliberately** ignoring his advances_? Jisung wasn’t given a chance to ask because Seungmin continued. “You really finished? The prop and everything?”

 _Fuck._ The propeller of the engine. Jisung forgot that was included. “Lix? Did you clean the prop?” he asked desperately, yelling to be heard over the slap of waves on the hulls.

“We had to do that?” Felix’s voice echoed from the stern. Seungmin grinned. Hyunjin had already started scrubbing again since it was clear the competition was still running.

“Our’s is done,” Seungmin boasted before letting go of Hyunjin and ducking back under the water.

“Fuck. LIX!!” Jisung yelled as he swam around to their designated side as quickly as possible. “We gotta do the prop!” Unlike the hull, the prop was metal and _so_ awkward to clean and this one had some fucking barnacles on it. Felix valiantly chipped them away but they ran out of time.

Hyunjin kicked gracefully around the corner and stopped beside them to watch them struggle. “Ahh, you’re still working?” he asked innocently. He pulled the hairband from his hair and ducked under the water with his head tipped back to get his hair to flow in smooth tresses down the back of his head.

Jisung let go of the boat to splash him. “Go boil water for the shower.”

Hyunjin easily intercepted the water with one hand and darted forward to sneak a kiss on Jisung's cheek. Jisung didn’t know how he managed to move so easily in the water.

“I thought I was supposed to be getting a reward, not an extra task,” Hyunjin said as he pulled himself up onto the steps to take off his flippers.

“Yeah, yeah,” Felix said, jabbing harshly at the prop. “You’ll get your blowjob. Calm down.”

Hyunjin laughed happily at their misfortune. What a bastard. “You know…” he said in a leading tone as he watched them slave away from above.

“What?” Jisung asked flatly. The false hope from earlier had really brought his mood down.

“Your bet with Minnie said the losers would reward the winners but since we’ll all be finished early I don’t see why it can’t be mutual…”

Jisung’s eyes met Felix’s across the prop. The Australian had let himself sink lower into the water to conserve energy for the task that looked like it had no end but he suddenly shot upwards as he kicked with excitement.

“Really, Hyunnie?” Felix asked. “You’re not just saying that?”

Hyunjin leaned over the steps to reach out and poke Felix in the cheek. “Why wouldn’t I want my favourite boys to be happy too?” Hyunjin was such a flirt and Jisung loved him for it. He told him as much and Hyunjin’s grin stretched even wider.

“Jinnie, what did you do?” Seungmin grumbled, swimming slowly around the corner in an awkward breaststroke after having checked Jisung and Felix’s hull for unfinished work. He must have heard Jisung’s reverent declaration.

“I gave them some motivation,” Hyunjin answered, pulled Seungmin out of the water and into his arms. “I think everyone has worked hard, don’t you?”

“It was supposed to be a surprise,” Seungmin groused loudly.

“Ahh, Minnie,” Jisung complained right back before Seungmin ended up in a bad mood. “Why do you want to watch us suffer so much? This is the second time today you have broken my heart.”

“It’s only been twice?” Seungmin retorted, already lighting up again. Jisung scrubbed harder at the last blade on the prop. They were so nearly done.

“Ya!” he exclaimed. “Why are you nice to Hyunjin but not me?”

“What makes you think he’s nice to me?” Hyunjin argued. They were kindly waiting for Jisung and Felix to finish instead of going inside without them. Sure, it looked like they were fighting, but they very rarely were.

“What makes you think I’m not?” Seungmin said in an affronted tone, pushing Hyunjin’s shoulder.

“You threw a jellyfish at me!” Hyunjin exclaimed.

“There’s _jellyfish?!”_ Felix yelped, hauling himself up the side of the boat to look around the water.

“It was a harmless one,” Seungmin pacified them. “And it was dead.”

Felix still pulled himself over the side. He had a strong fear of jellyfish which was funny until you remembered he was from Australia where every animal is deadly. “Nope, nope, nope. Sung, you’re finishing.”

Jisung was fine with that- he’d probably done the least work anyway. It took him a little more than five minutes and in that time the other three had stripped off their kit, put the cleaning supplies away and hosed down themselves in fresh water. Jisung gathered they were skipping the hot shower then. Fine by him if they were moving straight to the second task on the agenda.

“Done!” he declared loudly once the prop was free of barnacles again, throwing the screwdriver he had been using up onto the deck.

“You guys are finished?” Changbin asked, over hearing him.

“Nope, we have another job to do,” Felix told him while Jisung shimmied out of his wetsuit and took the fastest hose shower of his life.

“Damn, Channie-hyung is working you guys hard,” Changbin said, completely missing how shady they were all being.

“So hard,” Hyunjin replied. “Really, really-” he cut off his innuendo as Seungmin punched him on the arm. “Do you have a lot left to do, Hyung?”

Changbin went on a rant about forecasts and wind angles as expected and Jisung hastily towel dried, leaving his wet shorts with his wetsuit over the railing. Changbin didn’t even notice as the others also stripped of their wet clothes as long as one of them made agreeable noises at the right pauses in his monologue.

“We’ve got to go do that other job now,” Felix piped up as they all shuffled towards the port bedroom hatch. Hyunjin opened it with his foot.

“Ok!” Changbin replied, mostly engrossed in his charts again. “See you guys later!”

“Bye!” Jisung said and jumped down the hatch after Seungmin. “What a dumbass,” he muttered as Hyunjin shut the hatch again and they all tried to smother their laughter.

Jeongin looked up sharply as four very naked, giggling boys descended on the bed opposite his. “Um… What are you guys doing?” he asked.

“Work,” Felix replied shortly and kicked the door shut.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy birthday boys!

“Lixie!” Chan called as Felix stumbled up the stairs to the galley. He was far too excited for morning-time and Felix squinted at him in the bright light. “ _Come here, Sunshine_ ,” Chan said with a laugh and Felix followed his voice with his arms stretched out in front of him, crawling into Chan’s arms as soon as he found him and pressing his face into Chan’s neck. Chan smelled like the ocean and home. Felix didn’t think he’d ever be able to smell the ocean and not think of Chan ever again which was crazy because he’d known the ocean a lot longer than Chan.

Chan kissed the top of Felix’s head and hauled one of his legs over his own so Felix wouldn’t slide off the bench in a boneless heap. “ _I was going to ask you some important questions but it can wait until after coffee and breakfast if you’d like,_ ” Chan offered. 

Felix said nothing, content to just let Chan hold him and make all the decisions. Chan was equally bad at waking up as Felix so Felix didn’t feel guilty for being so clingy and pathetic. In fact, Chan being so cheerful right now probably meant he hadn’t slept so Felix was doing him a favour by forcing him to relax for a bit.

“ _Ok, later,_ ” Chan said, picking up on Felix’s mood. _“Do you want me to play some music?”_

 _“Sing,_ ” Felix said into Chan’s neck.

“ _Sing?”_ Chan asked incredulously as if it wasn’t his fucking job and something he was insanely skilled at. Felix bit him. “ _Ok! Ok!”_ Chan relented and he started rocking Felix as he sang ‘You Are My Sunshine.’

“What is this blatant favouritism?” Jisung’s deep grumbly morning voice brought Felix out of his daze.

“You stole the duvet,” Felix said, aiming to get his sympathy points early.

“Nuh uh,” Jisung replied, turning on the tap to get a drink of water before squeezing into the bench on Chan’s other side. _“Hyunjin_ stole the duvet and then kicked it off to my side.”

“I was still without duvet,” Felix argued. Chan had been an excellent substitute though.

Jisung gave up getting Felix to see his side and turned to Chan expectantly.

“What?” Chan asked, amusement colouring his voice. “You can’t seriously be mad that I’m cuddling Lix? He’s my boyfriend too and you were asleep!”

“You were singing,” Jisung huffed, pulling Chan's arm around his shoulders.

“Yeees” Chan said cautiously, raising an eyebrow at Felix as if to say ‘are you seeing this?’ 

Felix was seeing this and honestly he didn’t know how Chan was surprised. Jisung was constantly jealous of what someone else had. If Felix had coffee Jisung wanted coffee, if Felix had Changbin kissing into his mouth Jisung wanted it too, if Felix got cuddles from Chan- yep, you guessed it- Jisung wanted Chan cuddles. His jealousy wasn’t limited to Felix either but it was petulant rather than malicious so they generally humoured him.

“Should I not sing?” Chan guessed. He was an idiot. Jisung’s pout grew. “I should sing?” Chan guessed again. Jisung’s pout remained but his eyes lifted hopefully. “I should sing… to you?” Chan finally got it and Jisung grinned.

He wriggled until his head was against Chan’s chest. “Yes.”

“Uhhh,” Chan stalled as Felix put his head back down on his shoulder. “Any requests?”

“‘ _Wow_ ’,” Felix snorted, knowing both of them would hate it. 

Jisung flailed a fist in his direction. “Fuck off.” Felix caught his wrist and threaded their fingers together to lay in Chan’s lap. “I’ll write you really cringy lines,” Jisung threatened weakly instead.

“And how do you think that won’t embarrass you more?” Felix said sassily. Jisung was truly useless at verbal sparring pre-caffeine.

Chan put a hand gently over Felix’s entire face. Jisung might have gotten the same treatment but Felix couldn’t see. “Shh,” Chan said. “We will only be producing the very best music, thank you.”

“Explain last week,” Felix countered, biting Chan’s finger until his face was freed.

“We will only be releasing the very best music,” Chan corrected hastily while Jisung loudly protested that he had been off his face drunk but it was still a good song. It _was_ pretty catchy but, unfortunately, it had the deep subject matter of a seagull they named Bert. Bert had been a dick. He’d shat all over the deck and then stole Minho’s beer and dropped in the ocean. Felix wasn’t sure the rhythmic abuse they’d yelled at him had been what had driven the seagull off in the end but it had certainly made their night a lot more lively.

“Why was I abandoned?” Hyunjin asked from the stairs, sounding nearly as offended as Jisung had when he’d arisen. He climbed behind Felix and slotted his long limbs into any space he could find, sometimes reaching as far as Jisung and caging them all in.

“You really are the clingy cabin,” Chan sighed, pushing three of them off. “Who wants breakfast?”

***

“Where’s Lix?” Felix heard Chan ask as he went back below to change after breakfast.

“Why?” he heard Jisung replied suspiciously.

“Because I need to talk to him about Sydney,” Chan said patiently. Felix was willing to bet that he was rolling his eyes at the same time though. “Is that allowed?”

“Are we going home?” Changbin asked. He meant Chan’s home. Or more correctly- Chan’s parents’ home. They visited every summer (Australian summer) when the weather was too bad to be further North and the whole crew had been fully adopted into the Bang family. Last year (Felix’s first year with them) they’d only been in Sydney for a couple of days but if Chan was planning already perhaps they’d be there longer this year.

By the time Felix was dressed and ready for the day Chan had moved on to another task. Chan never stopped moving. “Hyung?” he asked as he passed the galley again.

“In the sail locker,” Minho informed him and Felix thanked him as he went outside to find Chan.

“ _Hey, Lixie,”_ Chan said cheerfully as he heaved a sail bag onto the netting. “ _Fancy helping me set this up?”_

Felix unzipped the bag and got started. They didn’t need words, both having done this hundreds of times and Felix knew Chan wouldn’t stay still until they started sailing so he held back on his questions until they were bouncing along the open ocean. 

“ _You wanted to talk about Australia?”_

 _“Yeah,”_ Chan said, standing at the helm with his eyes on the horizon. It would be a long day of sailing today as they headed South. “ _I figured we could do the coast down to New Zealand and back up to head for Korea in the spring. We can have the longer break in Sydney or around New Zealand somewhere- I thought I’d leave the choice up to you.”_ He glanced at Felix and offered him a small smile. _“I know you only saw your family briefly last time- do you want to see them for longer or was that about right?”_

Felix’s heart warmed with love for Chan. How had Chan noticed something so small? _“Honestly? A couple of days is enough.”_ He admitted. _“I’d love to show the guys Sydney though if we were staying at yours or a rented place.”_

Chan put on autopilot and turned to Felix with excitement shining in his eyes and the wind blowing through his curls. “ _I’d love that too,”_ he said. “ _I think a lot has probably changed since I lived there- but you can be our guide! I won’t ask my parents to put all of us up for that long, especially if Lucas is studying, so we can rent a house- spend some time with my family, some time with yours…”_ Chan stepped closer and wrapped his arms around Felix’s waist. _“Some time just us.”_

Felix knocked their foreheads together gently. _“As long as you get a house with two bathrooms this time. It’s not so easy just to go pee in the ocean if Jin is hogging the bathroom when you’re staying in the middle of the suburbs.”_

 _“I will not make that mistake again,”_ Chan vowed. He tilted his head and brushed his lips against the shell of Felix’s ear. “ _And don’t tell, but I’m going to try and find a house with a pool.”_

A _pool._ Felix would be on board with that… or not on board. He would be very much land-based with that. “ _How many beds?”_ He asked, wanting to get as many details for this fantasy house to look forward to at the end of their long trip back to Australia.

“ _We could do two?”_ Chan suggested. “ _King beds are bigger than our cabin ones.”_

 _“Innie would fall out without a wall,”_ Felix reminded him. About half of them would probably fall out without a wall and the rocking of the waves. 

“ _We can put up a kiddie guard rail,”_ Chan joked. “ _Wait...should we do that?”_

“ _Do what?”_ Seungmin asked, his Australian accent impeccable as he echoed Chan’s words. He’d come outside with his camera as side-eyed them suspiciously.

“ _Make secret plans in a language puppies don’t speak,”_ Chan replied quickly, winking at Seungmin.

“En français?” Felix asked with his best school exam accent.

“Je m'appelle,” Chan replied confidently, though it was nonsense. His confidence worked though because Seungmin frowned in injustice.

“Hey! That’s not fair.” He raised his voice. “Binnie-hyung! Chanlix are speaking secret languages!” 

“We fly the Korean flag, you will speak Korean!” Changbin bellowed from the saloon. Changbin was probably one of the boys that tried the hardest to learn English but he often told Chan and Felix off for using it in a group setting. He’d also told the others off for not translating back to English or slowing down when Felix first joined them so Felix didn’t mind his aggressive approach. He knew it came from a place of love.

“We also fly the Australian flag!” Chan protested.

“They weren’t speaking Australian!” Seungmin tattled.

“It was French,” Felix admitted. “Channie-hyung didn’t even make sense.”

“If you want to speak French you can come and bully the vessel approach from port to tack!” Changbin called out of the saloon doors. 

Felix left Chan’s arms and skipped down the stairs to look at the radar. “Where?”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sailing lingo: gybe is a type of turn you do on a sailboat. You turn the boat away from the wind so the boom- the horizontal part of the mast at the bottom of the mainsail- switches sides _very_ quickly. officially you yell 'gybe-ho!' or 'gybing!' before you do this so everyone in the vicinity has time to duck and hold on. If they dont duck... the boom goes 'boom' on your head.
> 
> https://twitter.com/minhoslaugh_/status/1147123878281400321 -The Hug

“Put Lixie as the thumbnail,” Seungmin demanded of Chan, leaning over him to jab at the laptop screen.

“Why?” Chan asked in confusion as he fumbled to complete the request. “Which shot?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Seungmin replied. “As long as he’s the thumbnail we get higher views.”

“What?” Chan muttered to himself. “That can’t be true.”

“It is,” Minho piped up from the other side of the bench. He had his feet tucked under Chan’s thigh as he read through Jisung’s latest half-hour lyrics dump. “I ran the maths.”

“Felix gets us views?” Chan asked, turned to look at him.

Minho rolled his eyes. “Have you _seen_ Felix? Of course he gets us views. The hashtag ‘marinatrenchsunshine’ trends every time we upload.”

“I knew that,” Chan grumbled. “I _do_ go on stan twitter.”

“ You _have_ stan twitter,” Minho corrected him fondly, poking Chan’s side with his toes. “And you're too busy gushing about us on there to look at the cold hard stats. Seungminnie and I look though, and Sunshine gets us the views. The Princeling is pretty good too.”

“Or when there’s gay shit,” Seungmin added.

“Or gay shit,” Minho agreed. “That one with Felix and Hyunjin having a staredown got an insane number of clicks.” The boys had been on opposite teams for a game and had their foreheads pressed together as they tried to get the other to blink. Changbin had taken the frame of the video just as Hyunjin had breathed for the thumbnail and his mouth was hanging open so the light caught his lips at just the right angle. With Felix grinning opposite him, who wouldn’t click? Jeongin had liked staring at it so much he’d set it as his phone background for a month.

“So…? I’m looking for a shot of Felix?” Chan asked. “Or Hyunjin? Shouldn’t we be giving everyone else more screen time?” _Oh, sweet Channie._

“This is capitalism, Channie-hyung,” Minho reminded him. “And I will absolutely use my boyfriends’ beauty for money.”

“You’re beautiful too though,” Chan said so sincerely Minho’s heart forgot to beat for a second. He recovered quickly though. He’d had practice with Chan saying stupid romantic stuff out of the blue.

“I know, Babe. But I’m not eye-catching-beautiful like those two-”

“Fucking _lies,”_ Seungmin scoffed. Ok, Minho hadn’t been fishing for compliments but that was nice to hear. Not that he’d admit it.

“Let me _finish,_ Kim Seungmin. _As I was saying-_ they are beautiful in 2D. _My_ beauty is 360, but we need them on the thumbnail so people click to find my face. And my thighs. And my ass.” Minho was pleased to see Chan’s eyes track along his body to each body part as it was mentioned. He waited until Chan’s eyes returned to his face again before he winked and brought the blood to Chan’s ears. Chan was so unbelievably shy when the romance was turned back on him it was almost too easy to wind him up.

"So!" Chan said quickly, looking back to his screen. "What am I doing about this thumbnail? It's a fun video- can't we give someone else a boost in views? Do you know who gets the least clicks?" He was in a professional zone and his ability to make that cold switch to analytical was something Minho really admired but right now he wished it hadn't happened.

"Me," Seungmin said. His voice didn't waver but Minho could read his body language and he wanted nothing more than to steal Seungmin away from his thoughts and shower him in affection. "My face is pretty forgettable," Seungmin added off-handedly.

“Bitch, I couldn’t forget you with a boom to the head and temporary drowning,” Minho retorted.

“Is that what you were trying to do?” Seungmin joked, self-deprecatingly. Minho wasn’t one to sit people down and vomit all his feelings on them (he’d leave that to Chan, thank you,) but he was considering making an exception.

“You know fine well that was Hyunjinnie’s fault for not announcing his gybe,” Minho said first, pointing his finger sternly at Seungmin. And it had fucking hurt even though he had been standing close enough to the mast not to get the full force of it, not to mention the terrifying dip in the ocean that followed. “And I would rather forget my own name than forget your face.” Minho forced the words out quickly while he was still riding the indignation of the previous sentence and then had to will himself very strongly not to look away or pull a face. It was harder than it really should have been.

Seungmin frowned at him. “Ok.”

“Wow, you're both so emotionally constipated,” Chan said cheerily, looking between them. “Just say you love each other.”

 _Just_ say you love each other. _Just?_ Just because Sir Bang Chan announced his adoration to literally anybody that was nice to him (including wait staff who were only doing their job) didn’t mean the rest of them were so free with their words.

Minho and Seungmin had a staredown.

“I like…. having you around,” Seungmin ventured when he lost.

“Minnie!” Chan scolded him good-naturedly. “You were so close.”

“I like… you?” Seungmin tried again. It sounded more like a question.

“Better!” Chan cheered. “Min! Your turn!”

Minho had moments ago admitted he’d rather forget his own name than forget Seungmin’s face. How much more romance did Chan want from him?

"Are you torturing them?" Changbin asked, coming up from the hold and seeing Seubgmin and Minho's pained faces.

"I'm trying to get them to say they love each other," Chan said.

"So you _are_ torturing them," Changbin accurately concluded. He turned to the captives. "I love you both and I respect your Love Languages being something other than Words of Affirmation."

"So I don't have to say it?" Minho asked in a rush. He would rather show his love in any other way and he was pretty sure Seungmin felt the same.

"You have to hug for a solid minute instead," Changbin declared. A hug? Minho could definitely do that. He got up and rounded the table to Seungmin, who was shyly waiting with open arms.

Somehow they ended up on the floor but Minho didn't mind. It just allowed him to wrap his legs around Seungmin too. He tucked his face against Seungmin’s neck and did his best not to crush the younger boy as he savoured the moment.

“How is that easier than saying ‘I love you’?” Chan asked from above them as a swell rolled them over so Seungmin was on top.

“Leave them be,” Changbin chided him. “What are you doing?”

“Staring at shots of Seungminnie’s smiling face,” Chan replied. He must have decided to make Seungmin the thumbnail after all.

“A great pastime,” Changbin agreed, leaning over Chan’s shoulder. “Aww. Such an excited puppy,” he cooed at a picture Minho couldn't see.

Seungmin pushed off the floor to escape but Minho held him tight. “It’s not been a minute, Puppy,” he whispered. Seungmin wriggled fruitlessly before slumping against Minho’s chest with a sigh. Minho gloated inside and ghosted his lips over Seungmin’s jaw.

“What’s happening lads?” Hyunjin asked quietly, sliding along the floor to be parallel with them. Minho couldn’t even get a whole minute of peace on this boat.

“What does it fucking look like, Hwang?” he replied testily. “We’re hugging.”

“In the middle of the thoroughfare,” Hyunjin added. “Is this going to go on for long? It’s kinda not the ideal position.”

“Hyunjinnie! Come pick your favourite frame of Seungminnie!” Chan called and Hyunjin was _gone_ in milliseconds. Chan might as well have told him he won the lottery.

“A minute is definitely up now,” Seungmin said and tried to get up again.

“Forty-three seconds,” Changbin announced. Minho hadn’t realised he’d actually set a timer. “Stay down, Puppy.”

“Forty-four, forty-five, forty-six,” Seungmin started chanting, much too fast.

“Forty-seven, Forty-eight, forty-nine,” Minho joined him. This really wasn’t the most comfortable position on a moving boat, as nice as it was to have Seungmin lying on top of him.

“Do I want to know?” Felix’s voice cut through the chatter.

“Lixie! Quick- pick a Seungmin photo!” Changbin called.

“Oh my god,” Seungmin muttered, giving up on the counting to hide his face in Minho’s shoulder.

“One minute,” Minho whispered finally, lifting one hand to stroke Seungmin’s hair. “Time to face the compliments, Puppy.”

Changbin’s alarm went off a few seconds later and he turned to them with a grin. “You guys can get up now.” It was a testament to how weird things got on _The Broken Compass_ that Felix and Hyunjin didn’t question why their floor cuddle session was being timed. Hyunjin turned only to swoop on Seungmin as soon as he was freed from Minho’s arms.

“You’re so _cute,”_ he growled, knocking Seungmin back to the ground again.

“Be careful of the stairs!” Chan called out to them but otherwise let Seungmin’s death by love happen. Minho gracefully jumped over them and slid into Chan’s lap. Dancing gave you so many transferable skills.

“...Hello,” Chan said pointedly, wrapping his left arm around Minho’s waist.

“Hello,” Minho replied. “Show me Puppy.”

Chan had had a productive minute and had several frames lined up ready for Minho to see. The first had Seungmin looking somewhere behind camera with his mouth set in a straight line as he focused intently. Minho flicked his wrist for the next one. They could show off Seungmin better than that, even if the lighting and focus was best there. The second still was a group shot but Seungmin was in the foreground, his arm around Jisung as he laughed. It was nice but a little blurry and Jeongin had been caught with a very unattractive facial expression. Minho swiped for the next one and Chan clicked his mouse.

It was perfect. Seungmin was mid-bounce with his hair flying up in the air as a smile lit up his face. He was reaching out for his prize behind the camera but in the frame Chan had chosen he was reaching almost directly to the camera, staring straight through the screen. Minho flopped back into Chan’s chest.

“Send that to me,” he managed to say. He didn’t know what he’d do with it- Jeongin was already his phone background and Changbin was his lockscreen but he’d think of something. Or he’d just put it in that folder on his phone that started with cats (to dissuade nosey boyfriends) and later became a collage of his boys.

“Will do,” Chan said. “I take it that’s your vote? It’s won unanimously so far so I’m just going to get Jinnie to do any edits with it before I start overlaying the title and stuff.” Chan spun the chair around to see where Seungmin was trying to wrestle out of his second cuddle. “Jin! Leave him be, you have work to do.”

“Yeah, Hwang, stop blocking the thoroughfare,” Minho added mockingly.

Hyunjin’s head shot up, his hair in utter disarray. “Seungminnie?”

“Can’t get enough of him?” Changbin joked from Minho’s previous spot on the bench. He was not one to talk when it came to being obsessive. Minho had lost track of the number of times Changbin had stared lovingly at one of them a little too often and then promptly gone into isolation for a couple of days to return with his overflowing feeling compressed into a new love song.

“It’s never enough,” Hyunjin replied but he was distracted long enough for Seungmin to wriggle free and make a bid for the bedrooms. He was probably going to hide with Jeongin where he’d be safe from cuddle attacks. If Seungmin thought they gave him too many words of affirmation he was not going to cope when they uploaded the video. St’ays were going to spam the comments for sure.

Hyunjin came and unceremoniously plopped himself down in Minho’s lap, entirely blocking Minho’s view until he leant out to one side to see around his shoulder. If Hyunjin grew much taller he was going to find his feet sticking out the bottom of their little cabin beds. From the bottom of the pile, Chan groaned. He was fine though. He’d had the whole 00-line stacked on him before and his legs had survived. Hyunjin stole the mouse from Chan and used the pointer to stroke digital-Seungmin on the hair.

“Edits, Hyunnie,” Chan reminded him, sounding pained. He was faking it.

“Oh yeah!” Hyunjin said brightly and quickly exported the image so he could get to work with the editing software Seungmin had taught him how to use. Seungmin normally did this part because he had a good eye for this sort of thing and worked hard to improve his skills but he couldn’t be trusted with today’s mission. And Hyunjin was _more than happy_ have a turn.

“He’s so goddamn beautiful,” Hyunjin grumbled as he adjusted the brightness. Unlike Minho and Seungmin, he was very liberal with his compliments. “If this isn’t the most viewed video this month I’m going to sue.” Chan must have clued him in to the cause.

“Sue who?” Chan teased, reaching around Minho to tickle Hyunjin’s side lightly. “Stowaways? They love Minnie almost as much as we do.”

“He’s already perfect,” Hyunjin announced, saving his changes after only a few minor alterations. Minho couldn’t disagree. He could object to something else though.

“Right, get off then,” he complained. “And take Changlix with you. We were having a nice quiet time before you lot barged in.”

Hyunjin turned to look at the ‘Changlix’ in question. They were certainly a single entity currently, with Felix straddling Changbin’s thighs, pressed chest to chest. Minho could understand it if they were making out but they appeared to be mostly staring into each other’s eyes. He would give it four days max before Changbin had a fresh love song.

“I’m not interrupting them,” Hyunjin said, clinging to Chan’s arm so Minho couldn’t buck him off. Wise, that’s exactly what Minho had been planning.

“Can you go buzz with energy somewhere else then?” Minho asked. He’d been having a nice quiet morning with Chan and though he knew there was no chance of him getting it back he had to try. “Go for a swim.”

“Want to swim with Hyung,” Hyunjin said petulantly.

“I hope you mean Channie-hyung,” Minho said. He himself did not swim. He barely managed not-sink and Chan was trying to teach him but, again, they rarely got time to themselves.

“Half an hour, Jin,” Chan said absently. He’d twisted his head at a horrible angle to continue working while they argued. It definitely wasn’t good for him. Minho took matters into his own hands. He aimed his pointer fingers at just the right angle and zapped Hyunjin’s waist to get him to stand up and then stood himself, ushering Hyunjin in front of him down the stairs. Seungmin was in for a surprise but before Minho followed Hyunjin he turned back around and took Felix and Changbin by the arms and hauled them away too. They could stare at each other downstairs.

“Thanks, Min,” Chan said quietly as he realised what Minho was doing. “Love you.”

Minho sent him a close-lipped smile. He would love to return to his previous spot but then someone else would wander in for attention. Chan just needed half an hour of peace. Minho could give him that.

“Make it up to me later by not staying up late,” Minho replied. They were weeks ahead on literally every schedule- youtube, music and boat- Chan could afford time off.

“Date tomorrow?” Chan asked shyly.

“Just us?” Minho didn’t want to get his hopes up. A whole date alone sounded like too much to wish for.

“Just us,” Chan agreed. “We can go in the morning.” Chan was not a morning person- he was spoiling Minho.

“Ok,” Minho said and retreated to the chaos before he could do something very dumb like say ‘I love you’.


	10. Chapter 10

Chan was working hard, though it may not seem like it to an outsider. He was creating a new track to be used in the background of a video that would be coming out later in the month and because it could be a slow process he’d decided to get comfortable and cozy. That could only mean one thing on the boat- The Poncho.

The Poncho had been a random purchase at a farmers market one winter and had they known its worth at the time they would have bought eight. Alas, there was only one and that made it even more precious. It didn’t look like much- a navy fleece poncho with a fluffy trim and hood lining and seasonal reindeer and pine trees printed along the edge- but it was perfect for working on a laptop. Small, seemingly insignificant features were what made The Poncho so good. Example one: the little parts sewn together on the inside to make wide arm holes. This meant you could move your arms about without sacrificing the cocoon of warmth by your body- this was the failing of the second poncho they bought, making it far inferior to The Poncho. Nobody wanted to wear the second poncho. The second poncho was essentially a blanket with a hole in it. However, by far the best feature of The Poncho was the toggles. They seemed kind of useless, and they were, but when they were undone the neck hole was suddenly a lot wider- wide enough for two heads to poke through comfortably. That was how The Poncho was being used now. Chan was in front with his laptop propped on a little table by his knees and Changbin was behind, stuck to Chan’s back like a limpet, with the fluffy hood pulled over his head. He was almost fully engulfed by the fabric but he was happy and so was Chan.

“Bin. Which snare?” Chan asked, playing two samples for Changbin to hear. Neither were actually snare drums, instead they were chopped recordings of sounds from around the boat. 3RACHA had gotten very good at making use of what they could find to sample around the boat so it might sound like random thuds to other people but Changbin would know what Chan was looking for. He always did.

Changbin hummed quietly by Chan’s left ear. “Play the first one again.” Chan did. Changbin hummed again, this time contemplatively. “Can you cut that? “Make it shorter.” 

Chan could indeed do that, very easily. He made the edit and played it again. He added a bit of fade out and played once more.

“Yes!” Changbin said happily, squeezing Chan around his middle. “Where’s the sail slap? Pitch shift it for the bass.”

“On it,” Chan said.

Soon enough they had the basis of a classic beat and they could get on to the fun stuff. Chan put up the volume of a particularly unique sound bite and hit play before Changbin could notice which clip he picked. 

“Vegan sausages?!?! _”_ Hyunjin’s voice shouted through Chan’s laptop speakers, laced with disgust that such a thing should exist. Minho had happened to mention the offending item just as Chan pressed record to sample the kitchenware for the hundredth time and the resulting clip was gold.

“We have to use that,” Changbin said. He sneaked his arms through the arm holes but failed to reach the keyboard and whined quietly in Chan’s ear. “Channie-hyunnnggg.”

“Words, Bin,” Chan teased him, keeping his laptop out of reach. 

“Wibble it,” Changbin whined.

“Wibble it?” Chan repeated judgmentally though he knew exactly what Changbin wanted from him. 

“WiBbLe iT,” Changbin repeated, modulating his voice pitch wildly. Yup, that was what Chan was anticipating. He’d already made multiple copies of the sample to mess with. Chan’s production software had a great feature for just this kind of thing and he roughly adjusted a pitch modulation curve above the sample to find the best version.

They got so engrossed in Hyunjin’s modulated voice that they initially missed the real Hyunjin’s distress call. 

“-BOARD!” There was the sudden thrum of the engines starting despite them moving along at a fair pace under sail and the lurch of a hasty tack. Chan knew instantly what was happening before Hyunjin had even yelled out a second time. “MAN OVERBOARD!”

Chan lunged forward in a scrabble to get up and choked on the poncho before ripping it off of them and running for the door. He headed straight for the helm but Minho was already there, taking control and yelling out orders for the other boys to haul down the sails. Chan joined Jisung with the mainsail and they rushed to get it haphazardly stuffed away. It didn’t matter what condition it was in right now, just as long as the boat got under engine power as quickly as possible so Minho had the best control of the boat.

With the sails away, Chan was left without a job for a few seconds and he looked around to find Hyunjin as the spotter, pointing back at the direction they came from, his eyes trained on the water. 

“Innie?” Chan asked, his heart pounding with fear. Jeongin fell overboard more often than any seasoned sailor really should and he was fine every time but it was still nerve racking to have him bobbing about on the open sea as they sailed away. The sailing away was essential though, however painful it was. It gave them the room to maneuver and line out to fish him back out again. 

“Yup,” Hyunjin replied tensely. “I heard a yell and a splash and he was gone.”

“Well done though,” Chan said. “You did everything right.” 

“I forgot the life ring,” Hyunjin muttered, still staring intently where Chan could see the little dark-haired blob of Joengin disappearing and reappearing behind the shallow waves.

“We’ll get him,” Chan assured him. If Minho missed with his drive-by (which he wouldn’t) Chan would just take the life ring and dive it. Perhaps not the best solution safety-wise but Jeongin was his youngest crew-member and he couldn’t just leave him to get dragged down by his clothes while they executed another maneuver.

“TURNING!” Minho announced and Chan joined Hyunjin in crossing the boat to keep Jeongin in his sight. “I can see him,” Minho said as he straightened up into the wind and brought the engines into neutral to glide up to a stop. “Who’s got the line?”

“I do!” Seungmin called, crouched on the beam of the port hull.

“All good,” Minho said, making a final adjustment. Jeongin waved at them from the water as they drew closer, a smile on his face.

“You idiot!” Hyunjin leaned over the railing to yell at him now that he was no longer needed to point. 

Minho had timed it perfectly and they came to a stop with Jeongin sculling in the water just below Seungmin with the rope. Seungmin threw the end of the rope at Jeongin’s head (though technically it should have been over his shoulder) and led Jeongin by the rope around to the steps at the back.

“I _tripped!”_ Jeongin yelled back to Hyunjin, not traumatised in the slightest by his abrupt departure from _The Broken Compass._ Felix helped him out of the water and Hyunjin stalked forward to elbow past Felix and push Jeongin back in.

“You scared me!” Hyunjin yelled down at him. Now the procedure drilled into him was complete Hyunjin’s emotions had finally risen to the surface. Chan stepped forward to calm him but Changbin was once again perfectly in tune with his thoughts and got there first. 

He wrapped one arm around Hyunjin’s waist and pulled him back. “Let’s not let that rescue go to waste, huh Hyunnie?” he said gently. “Let In get out the water.”

“I’m going to fucking tie you to the railing,” Hyunjin threatened Jeongin.

“Why?” Jeongin asked, shaking the water out his hair. “I can swim, it was fine.”

“And what if I hadn’t noticed?” Hyunjin asked, near-hysterical. 

_Ah._ He must have been the only other person on deck. That’s why he was so shaken up by what was, frankly, almost a routine event.

Jeongin shrugged. “I would have yelled at you. And then if you didn’t hear, I would have swam to the nearest island and gotten someone to radio the boat.” They were sailing through an archipelago so he really wouldn’t have far to go.

“Can you imagine?” Seungmin said. “‘ _Blah Blah Marina to The Broken Compass. Can you count your crew members? There’s a kid at our lost and found with your name on it. Do you want to come get him?’”_

 _“_ Not funny,” Hyunjin said.

“Very funny,” Minho countered. “Do you think they’d keep him for two weeks or would we have to go get him immediately?”

“You have to come get me immediately!” Jeongin protested from inside his soaking wet t-shirt. It didn’t help him that Seungmin was holding the hem so he couldn’t escape.

“Maybe if you fell overboard less often we would come get you immediately,” Jisung called from the galley. He waved a frypan threateningly. “I burnt my lunch for you!” Jeongin didn’t even notice as he was too busy trying to blindly slap Seungmin’s hands away. Behind them the engines roared back to life and Seungmin let go in surprise, finally setting Jeongin free.

Felix was standing proudly at the helm. “No, no, continue bickering,” he said cheerfully. “I’ll just steer us away from drifting into this reef here.”

“Sorry, Sunshine. I can take it,” Chan said, already stepping up to help as two others also offered their assistance. Felix waved them all off. 

“I got it,” he said, turning the wheel casually with one hand. “You guys can get the main back up so we’re not motoring in such good wind.”

“Innie will do it,” Chan announced to the crew.

Jeongin paused in wringing out his shirt. “What? By myself?” he asked, dumbfounded.

“You’re the reason we had to take it down,” Chan pointed out. “A big strong boy like you, just missed out on a swim all the way to the next island, can definitely manage to hoist the mainsail by yourself.”

“But-”

“I’ve got work to do,” Chan cut him off. He took Changbin by the arm and lead him back downstairs. “Have fun, Innie!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Poncho is real (which is the only reason it got a decent description) i am wearing it right now. it did not come from a farmers market, my brother found it in a skip, washed it, and gave it to me as a present. so kind. anyway its cozy and its not in landfill now so im not complaining
> 
> and i do not have music production knowledge but Andrew Huang does so I stole technicalities from his video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-w9c6zYLS0&t=64s
> 
> and finally, that is the real crew overboard (COB) procedure on a boat with sail and motor power. you should throw a life ring at the COB as soon as possible as you are sailing away but hyunjin was busy trying to get under engine power so he didnt manage. thats ok. If anybody is interested you sail away 5-6 boat lengths before coming back so you have time to line up and slow down. otherwise you might go past the COB or hit them. The direction you sail depends on if you are under sail or motor power but the aim is to be drifting away from the COB if anything so you're not at risk of hitting them


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a good friend wrote me a whole mini essay about why this fic should have some jeonglix and so I present this chapter. If you would like to make a case as to why a ship (can be any number combination) should happen please appeal to me on twitter or in the comments.

“Do you need help, Baby?” Felix asked as he watched Jeongin grunting as he hauled the sail back up. “I’ve got to watch the radar but I can use the electric winch with one hand. Channie-hyung doesn’t need to know.”

“I’ve got it, Hyung,” Jeongin said breathlessly. “Nearly there.” The sail was barely halfway up but Jeongin kept working, using his whole body to pull down on the line. “Any reefs?”

If it was too windy they didn’t pull the sail all the way up to control the forces pushing the boat. Jeongin was hoping for less work. Felix swept his fringe off his forehead. The wind wasn’t even strong enough to keep it back.

“Nope. Sorry, Innie.”

“It’s fine,” Jeongin grunted, pausing for breath with the line braced around his hand so the sail wouldn’t come tumbling back down again. “Do you think Channie-hyung wants me to do the jib too?”

“Almost definitely,” Felix replied. The jibsheet furled up neatly on itself at the front of the boat though so Jeongin could get that sail out too by just flicking a line out of a cleat. The mainsail was the real gruntwork and boy was Jeongin grunting.

“Argh,” Jeongin yelled as he pulled down again. “Is it at the top yet? It must be nearly at the top.”

“Nearly,” Felix agreed. “You’re doing great, Baby.”

“Agi BANG!” Seungmin yelled from the steps at the other side of the boat to Felix, holding up his phone to film. Hyunjin was leaning over Seungmin shoulders and wolf-whistled obnoxiously. They hadn’t gone back inside with the others and Felix had a feeling it was because Hyunjin was still shaken up by the man overboard but instead of fussing around Jeongin he was just ogling.

“Ah, Yang Jeongin so sexy!” Hyunjin sang, swaying Seungmin from side to side. “So strong!

“Stop staring, you weirdos!” Jeongin whined, trying to hide his body behind the sail. He’d stripped most of his wet clothes and now the gains from his rigorous work-outs with the hyungs was on full show. Their maknae was in good shape.

“I have to stare!” Hyunjin shot back. “If I take my eyes off you for one second you trip over thin air and hurt yourself!”

“I said I’m fine!” Jeongin yelled angrily. “See!” He held out his arms to show Hyunjin….and let go of the rope. The sail slid back down the mast in its brackets in a cacophony of sounds and thudded into the sail bag.

“Oh no,” Seungmin whispered succinctly. Felix watched in as Jeongin scrunched up his eyes as his mouth pulled down at the corners.

“Why did you distract me!” Jeongin yelled, eyes flashing back open to glare at Hyunjin. Seungmin ducked out of the way and skipped over to hide behind Felix.

“I’m looking out for you!” Hyunjin roared back. “If I don’t-”

“Go hoist the sail with me,” Felix whispered to Seungmin as the other two continued to yell. Their fights always blew up like this, regardless of the topic, and Felix had long stopped bothering to listen to their words. Seungmin stepped up to the mast and managed to actually shuffle Jeongin down to Hyunjin without either boy giving him a single glance and then he took the discarded line and started to hoist the sail. It was much easier with Felix working the electric-powered winch too and Seungmin quickly had it all tied off. He’d tightened the luff and the downhaul and Felix had turned off the engines to switch them to sail power before the other two boys finished their argument.

“He’s so stubborn!” Hyunjin exclaimed after Jeongin had stalked off to have a shower.

“Uh huh,” Felix said absently as he turned them on a beam reach and set the sail accordingly. It was so satisfying when he caught the wind just right and the boat started flying over the waves. “Come here,” He ordered Hyunjin. Hyunjin crossed the boat in a daze and Felix took his hands before placing them on the wheel and squeezing them tight to make Hyunjin grip it. “Innie’s not on deck now so you have nothing to worry about. You can take back the helm now, right?” he asked sunnily. “Great!” He stood on his tiptoes to kiss Hyunjin’s cheek and skipped off before Hyunjin had a chance to answer.

Felix took a detour to the Hyungs’ cabin to catch Chan up on the situation before looking for Jeongin. He found Jeongin in his cabin, with his head covered by a towel as he dried it. It was the perfect opportunity so Felix snuck up on him and took over.

“Yah! Who is it?” Jeongin grumbled.

“Yah?” Felix echoed him. “Aish, you are so bold for a maknae. You’re lucky it’s only me.”

“What are you doing, Lixie-hyung?” Jeongin mumbled, lifting the edge of the towel to peer up at him.

“Making sure my favourite maknae is all right, of course,” Felix said, carefully towelling Jeongin’s hair. “You didn’t get hurt when you fell in did you?” he asked. “Did you trip? Hurt your foot?”

“I tripped…” Jeongin said shyly. “And I’m mostly fine. I just…” He pulled up the hem of his t-shirt and pulled down the elastic of his boxers. There was a fine red welt that had risen on the skin across his hips. “It’s fine, just some friction burns from the railing.”

Felix hissed in sympathy. “Ouch. You finish drying your hair and I’ll go get some cream for that.”

**

“Why are you so clumsy, Baby,” Felix asked jokingly as he smoothed the cream over Jeongin’s skin. “Always get injured and breaking things. We should bubble wrap you.”

“I don’t _always_ break things,” Jeongin mumbled. “The boat moves, it’s not my fault.”

“Ah, you’re a landlubber at heart, is that it?” Felix asked. “Do we need to leave you in Busan and come back to visit once a year like in _Pirates of the Caribbean_?” It was Changbin’s favourite film and so they all knew the plot of the entire franchise incredibly well.

Jeongin gripped Felix’s wrist to stop him working. “Please, please, never leave me in Busan.” He was deadly serious.

Felix tipped back his head and laughed. “Why, Baby? What’s so bad about Busan?”

“Hyungie, please. Promise, no matter what I break you’ll never leave me in Busan.”

“Of course we won’t leave you in Busan,” Felix said, kissing Jeongin’s worried lips. “We won’t ever leave you anywhere. You know that, right? Even a day away from you feels like too long.”

“Stop being sappy, Hyung,” Jeongin grumbled as his face reddened. He pushed Felix away but Felix leant forward again and knocked Jeongin onto his back, climbing onto his lap. He leaned down until they were chest to chest and touched his nose to Jeongin’s.

“Are you shy, Baby?” Felix teased. “Do you not want me here?” Jeongin turned his head to one side but said nothing. _Got ya,_ Felix thought. He mouthed at Jeongin’s hair, a mix between pretending to eat him and kissing. “It’s just me, Baby. You can tell me you like the attention. I won’t tell the others.”

“I don’t-” Jeongin started and then cut himself off.

Felix kissed up his exposed neck. “You don’t what, Baby?” Jeongin’s hand came up to fist in the back of Felix’s hair and Felix smiled into his skin. With Jeongin it just took a little bit of patience to get the best reward. “You don’t what?” he teased.

Jeongin tried to curl in on himself to escape but it didn’t work too well with Felix sprawled across him. Felix gave up the fight though and tipped off his boyfriend onto the bed beside him. He fit nicely in Jeongin’s arms. They lay still for a second before Jeongin pulled him closer, bringing their lips together.

“I love you, Lixie-hyung,” he said quietly when they were a hair's breath apart. It was a rare admittance from Jeongin and Felix treasured it.

“Love you too, Jeongin,” Felix replied. “No matter what disasters you cause.”


	12. Chapter 12

Changbin heard Seungmin coming around the side of the boat before he saw him and he could tell he was in a bad mood from the sound of his movement- sloppier and heavier than it normally was. It was no surprise to him then when Seungmin walked onto the tramp and flopped onto it to groan dramatically. The tramps, despite being officially called trampolines, were really just netting. They weren't to be bounced on because that would fray the ropes but Changbin let Seungmin off this time since it appeared he was having a bad day.

“Sup, Puppy?” he asked brightly, reaching out to pet Seungmin’s hair.

“My mum wants me to sing at the family gathering at Chuseok,” Seungmin mumbled into netting. 

“Please tell me you’re not going,” Hyunjin said from the other tramp where he was quietly reading, a bucket hat pulled low over his eyes to block out the low sunlight.

“Kinda have to,” Seungmin mumbled without looking up. “She’s guilt tripping me because I didn’t go to university and all my cousins have these fancy jobs so she wants to show me off.”

“She’s got our albums, right?” Hyunjin said. “Just tell her to play that. If you fly out we won’t see you for weeks.”

Changbin tugged netting Hyunjin's side to get it to bounce a little. “Dude, it’s worse than that. If Seungmin goes home you know my mum will find out and then I’ll have to go home and-”

“-then my mum will find out,” Hyunjin finished, dropping his book as he realised. “Minnie, you gotta say no.”

“You say no!” Seungmin whined.

“To your mum?” Changbin asked incredulously. “Ok, I’ll tell your mum you can’t come home for Chuseok and you tell my mum I can’t come home for Chuseok because you know they’ve gossiped about this already.”

“Nooo,” Seungmin whined. “You’re mum is so nice. I can’t tell her no!” 

“Neither can I!” Changbin retorted.

“I don’t wanna fly home,” Hyunjin wailed beside them.

“What disaster has befallen you find gentlemen?” Felix asked, appearing with a sunny smile. They didn’t call him sunshine for nothing. Changbin’s day was instantly better even though he’d already spent time with Felix that day.

“Seoul is going to steal away your three favourite boyfriends!” Hyunjin said dramatically, flopping backwards onto the tramp. (Again, not what it should be used for but Changbin was going to let it slide.)

“Innie, Channie-hyung, and Innie again?” Felix asked jokingly.

“Us!” Changbin exclaimed. “The rich bitches of Seoul!”

“Don’t call us that,” Seungmin complained, swatting at Changbin’s head. He stood up again as the roar of Chan returning in the tender got louder. “I’m gonna go ask Channie-hyung for a reason we can’t go,” he announced and bounced off in a far happier mood now he had a plan.

“So why exactly is the _Soul-Monster_ going to take you all away?” Felix asked teasingly, crawling along the netting and into Changbin’s lap.

“Chuseok,” Changbin replied. “ And high society social hierarchy.”

Felix blinked and turned to Hyunjin for a translation. Changbin forgot sometimes that Felix wasn’t fluent because the Korean he did use was so much more sophisticated than the rest of them. 

“Our parents want to prove their children are better than other people’s children,” Hyunjin explained. “If we don’t come home for Chuseok people will gossip that we’ve gone off the rails or something.”

“We kind of have,” Changbin laughed. Not that their parents cared. Chan had been adamant about talking to their parents before joining the crew. He even had a powerpoint presentation for that very conversation, explaining the skills they’d learn about sailing, the places they’d get to visit, and also the musical opportunities available. This was all before Stray Kids or even 3RACHA was a thing in Changbin’s case but he’d known he wanted to pursue music and Chan had convinced his parents to let Changbin spend a month aboard _The Broken Compass_ as a sort of musical retreat to test his skill. Changbin never left after the month was up. He was the first to jump ship from Seoul’s elite but he wasn’t the last.

“Why don’t you want to spend time with your family for Chuseok?” Felix asked. “You guys can all go home if you want and me and Channie-hyung can get a bit of the heavy sailing done while you’re gone.”

Changbin’s heart hurt from the thought of it. He just knew Chan would try and cover as many miles as possible and the pair of them would end up dangerously sleep deprived, eating out of tins while he lounged about Korea eating premium steak. He didn’t want that at all.

Hyunjin rolled across the tramps and bowled Felix over which may or may not have been an accident. He sat on Felix’s chest and stared down at him. “Sunshine,” he said seriously.

“Uh huh,” Felix replied, a little dazzled.

“We want to spend Chuseok with our family.”

Felix nodded. “We can see which airport nearby will fly to Seoul then. Chusoek is in a October, right? Flights shouldn’t be too expensive if we get them now and Channie-hyung and I can drop you off wherever so we don’t even have to worry about docking-”

Hyunjin glanced to Changbin in disbelief before turning his attention back to Felix, who was still rambling on. “ _Sunshine.”_

“Mm?” Felix said. “Do you want to fly earlier?”

“Lee Felix Yongbok,” Changbin said, leaning between them to kiss Felix in the mouth. “It’s like there isn’t a selfish bone in your body. We don’t _want_ to go to Seoul for Chuseok. We want to be with our family. Right here.”

“Here? Me?” asked Felix, genuinely puzzled.

“Oh my god.” Hyunjin breathed. “Yes, _you._ You and everyone else. Why the hell would we want to be all split up, listening to relatives making digs about how this ‘isn’t a real job’ and we need to ‘grow up and face reality’ when we could be floating in the Carribean with you?”

“But you can do that whenever,” Felix protested. “Chuseok is special.”

“Lixie, _you_ are special,” Changbin said. “If I can’t spend Chuseok with all eight of us together I don’t want to leave this boat.”

“Amen,” Hyunjin said. “My parents love love so that excuse will totally work on them but Minnie isn’t out so we need to use every brain cell on this boat to find an excuse to keep him here.”

“Freak tornado?” Felix suggested, going hard from the start. Changbin liked his style. He’d have to remember that one the next time he got an Emergency Summons he didn’t want to attend.

“That’s a bit of a last minute excuse,” Hyunjin said, climbing off Felix so they could all sit up and think better. “Pretty stressful. We need a now excuse.”

“We have Lost land,” Felix suggested next, with dramatic flair.

“Cannot See it,” Hyunjin agreed in the same tone. “It was out the port window yesterday and now- poof! Gone. We’ll keep looking but I dunno if we’ll find it again in time.”

If they were going for Just Plain Dumb excuses now, Changbin could outdo them easily. “We need Seungminnie to balance out the beds. Otherwise the boat capsizes at night.”

Hyunjin laughed. “Our side is too heavy anyway. Hyungs should really swap cabin with you.”

“They should but they won’t,” Changbin said. “They like the peace and quiet.”

“The mast fell off,” Felix offered his next excuse. “We’ll paddle to the airport but we’ll never make it on time.”

“A whale ate Jeongin and we’re on a quest to get him back. Only Seungmin speaks whale so we need him to stay,” Hyunjin countered. They were better at this than Changbin thought.

“I speak what now?” Seungmin asked. He’d sneaked up on them.

“Whale,” Hyunjin answered seriously.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> add your excuses in the comments for why seungmin cant go home


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so if you were under the impression that it was like august in this fic just forget that. turns out the pacific ocean is like hugely bigger than the atlantic and the crossing theyd need to do from panama to australia is 8000 miles and takes like 4-9 months soooo its march now. apparently they need to leave panama in april at the latest to get the trade winds and miss cyclone season. i would be so stressed but chan can definitely organise all that so its fine

As it turned out, there was a colossal excuse for Seungmin to miss Chuseok- the Pacific Ocean. In his panic Changbin had entirely forgotten the dates of their crossing but Chan reminded them that in September they could be anywhere between the Galapagos Islands and Australia. So despite Seungmin’s mother trying to lock down his commitment extra early this year he was, unavoidably, busy at Chuseok. Seungmin relayed this information as somberly as possible via email before telling Chan to sail away from all phone signal, preferably overnight.

So that had happened. Hyunjin was glad it was settled so easily though he felt a little guilty for not going back home. He did miss his parents and his dog quite a bit and it would have been nice to see them for the holiday but he knew he’d miss his boys more if he was without them for too long. He hadn’t realised when he left Seoul the first time a couple of years ago that it would never be Home again and it was a strange thing to come to terms with but this was where he belonged now.

His parents had understood it faster than he had. _The Broken Compass_ crew had visited Seoul and he couldn’t stay out of touch with the others. He just constantly found himself looking for them, wanting to tell them about his day and share things he found funny. Two days in he’d met up with Changbin and Chan and hugged them so fiercely you would have thought one of them was leaving to fly to the moon.

 _‘They’re your family,’_ Hyunjin’s mum had told him when Chan and Changbin left again after dinner. Hyunjin had protested. The relationship was still a weird work in progress so at best the boys could be called ‘best friends’ and his parents were _his parents_ \- you didn’t get closer family than that. They’d seen something he hadn’t though and assured him that they wouldn’t think he loved them any less if the family he made started to take priority over the family he was born to.

‘ _Everyone reaches this stage in life,’_ his dad had added. ‘ _Your mother and I spent holidays just the two of us before you and we can do it again. Visit and call when you can but don’t let us stop you from living your life.’_ And so Hyunjin was living his life with the family he made and calling when he remembered. He’d actually called his parents while Seungmin composed his email so they could hear from him and not the grapevine that he wouldn’t be home until likely the new year despite it being only March currently. He could hear that his mum was disappointed but she didn’t ask for him to fly home at any point before then or pester him for schedules so she could fly out to meet them and he was impressed at that. There was the familiar jab of ‘you should really enrol in online school’ but he brushed it off easily, gave his love and ended the call.

Changbin had braved a similar call, though his had contained significantly more aigoo as he tried to weasel his way out of alternative social events. The Pacific was a big place though, it was a pretty blanket excuse for most of the year and Changbin was certainly a key member of the crew that couldn’t just fly out from a small island once the major crossing was over. With the forthcoming crossing, the various recordings they’d had in the US at the start of the year, the album they were wrapping up now, constant boat maintenance and the filmed content they put out every week they didn’t even really need dumb excuses- there really was always something happening.

Apart from today. Today the agenda was pretty much blank. Their months of bliss in the Caribbean were coming to a close as they had to time their departure from Panama with the end of the Pacific cyclone season and though they had been drifting South and West through the island chain Chan was now setting course with the entrance to the Panama Canal in mind. Today however there was no wind and they weren’t in any real rush yet so they were anchored and enjoying the calm. Well, Hyunjin was calm. Minho, not so much.

“You’re _fine_ , Hyung,” Hyunjin assured him. “Completely safe.”

“I don’t _feel_ safe,” Minho said through gritted teeth, clinging onto Hyunjin’s arm for dear life.

“Relax,” Hyunjin said, peeling Minho’s hands off him. “The water is standing depth and I’ve got you- you’re completely safe.”

“I want Channie-hyung,” Minho said miserably, trying to keep his head above the water. He was really just making things harder for himself.

“You’d hate it just as much with him,” Hyunjin reminded him. Minho did not enjoy his swimming lessons but it kind of had to be done. Chan had gotten him to agree to learning to at least float but even that much was difficult when Minho was so tense.

“He’s easier to persuade,” Minho said. “Hyunjin! Hyunjin, no!” he fumbled for Hyunjin’s hand and Hyunjin deftly stepped back, keeping his other hand under Minho’s head so his airways would stay clear of the water. Minho panicked so much though that his feet sank enough to touch the bottom and he scrambled to stand up. “Why did you let go!” he accused Hyunjin.

Hyunjin sighed and sculled closer. He always got yelled at when he tried to teach Minho to swim but he knew Minho didn’t really mean it and Minho was always sweet to him afterwards when they were back on the boat. “Did I let go?” Hyunjin asked. “Or was I still keeping your head above water?”

“What about the rest of me!?” Minho exclaimed.

“Use your abs,” Hyunjin said, flipping onto his back to demonstrate. “Your core strength is better than mine- you can totally do it.”

“It _doesn’t work!”_ Minho retorted.

“YOU CAN DO IT BABY!” Jisung yelled from the shore where he was watching their fight.

“FUCK OFF!” Minho replied. He squared his shoulders though and looked Hyunjin dead in the eyes. “Ok. Again.”

Hyunjin would never not be amazed at the way Minho just boxed up his fears and faced his worst nightmares with such determination. “Yep,” he said, not wanting to draw it out for Minho. “Don’t grab me this time and I’ll support your back too.”

“You were letting me go first!” Minho protested but he turned side-on to Hyunjin and sunk down in the water to let him start to take his weight.

“I wasn’t,” Hyunjin promised. “I was letting you float.”

“I don’t float,” Minho grumbled. “I sink.”

Hyunjin bit back a smile and carefully cradled Minho in the water, one hand behind his head and one at the small of his back. He held Minho a little higher out of the water so he would still feel Hyunjin’s arms supporting his weight and paused to let Minho relax a little. “You’re doing good, Hyung,” he praised Minho when he didn’t immediately make a grab for Hyunjin again.

“I hate this,” Minho reminded him as if Hyunjin couldn’t read those words clearly on his face.

“You live on a boat, Babe,” Hyunjin said. “Deep water was gonna be involved. I’m going to lower you a bit more and I want you to push your hips and feet to the surface. I’m not letting go, I promise.”

Despite the warning Minho still made a little noise of panic as Hyunjin’s hands seemed to hold him less securely. Hyunjin politely pretended he hadn’t heard it. Minho did much better at the floating though, to the point Hyunjin felt he could hold his hips up by himself.

“That’s brilliant, Hyung,” he said as Minho’s toes bobbed at the surface. “Keep that up- hips too, remember- and I’m going to take my hand away from your back. I’m still keeping your head up, don’t worry, and you can scull with your hands too like Channie-hyung showed you.”

“No, I need-!” Minho started and then clamped his mouth shut as Hyunjin’s support left and he tried to use breath-holding to keep his body floating.

“Breathe,” Hyunjin commanded. “Use your core, not your lungs.” Minho’s eyes went wide but he didn’t breathe out. “Come on, Hyung. Hips up.” Minho’s hips rose again as he stopped panicking and focused. “Breathe.” Minho took a reluctant breath. “Goood!” Hyunjin kicked off the bottom and started to move them slowly backwards which would help Minho stay afloat. “Doing great, Hyung!” Minho didn’t answer, too focused on not drowning. “Ok, kick now,” Hyunjin instructed. “Toes to the surface. And keep breathing.”

Minho kept it up for about half a minute with very little help from Hyunjin and so Hyunjin let him come back to standing. Unfortunately for Minho, they’d moved to a slightly deeper part of the bay and the sand was not as close as he was expecting. He yelped when he didn’t encounter the bottom on his first kick down and grabbed onto Hyunjin. “Too deep!”

“It’s not,” Hyunjin laughed, standing easily, the water coming mid-way up his chest. Minho wasn’t listening though and had fully clung onto Hyunjin, legs and arms wrapped tight around his torso. “You can touch the bottom,” Hyunjin assured him. “Try.”

“No,” Minho said petulantly. “Take me to shore.”

“You done?” Hyunjin asked, pushing Minho’s wet hair away from his eyes.

“Yes.” Minho answered. “I was done when we started.”

Hyunjin rolled his eyes and leaned into the water to start walking back to shore. He could swim with Minho attached but he had a feeling the older boy wouldn’t enjoy his head going under too much. As it was, Minho still shuffled around so he was latched onto Hyunjin’s back and out of the bow wave Hyunjin was creating.

“That was good though, Hyung,” Hyunjin said, bending his knees so Minho’s weight was still cradled by the water as they reached the shallower water near Jisung.

"Good enough to stop doing this shit?" Minho asked grumpily. Hyunjin slowed down as the water reached his waist and it got harder to wade with Minho's full weight on his back and his legs still hindered.

"Get down, Hyung," Hyunjin said and waited for Minho to climb off of him before answering, "No, you've got to learn to swim by yourself. Floating is the hardest bit though," he assured him, taking Minho's hand. "Moving in the water is going to be so much easier if you float like we just practiced."

Minho's current 'swimming' style was to kick and pull down with all his might to keep above the surface and maybe aim in a direction for a couple of feet or so before he was completely exhausted. As someone who didn't remember ever not being able to swim to some degree, Hyunjin had been baffled as to how someone could expand so much effort and go nowhere but Chan's dad was a swim coach so their Captain had the expertise to start Minho swimming from the basics. At this rate Minho was going to have better technique than Jisung. He told Jisung as much when they reached shore and Jisung threw sand at him.

“I was joking!” Hyunjin protested, holding his hands in front of his face. He hadn’t been but he’d say anything to get Jisung to stop.

“So you think I’m going to be worse than Sungie?” Minho asked, offended.

“No!” Hyunjin said, backing into the water out of Jisung’s firing range. He was digging himself a hole here. “ _Different_. You’re going to swim differently but both ways are good.”

Jisung ceased fire but still looked at Hyunjin through narrowed eyes.

“If you want to learn streamlining techniques I’m happy to teach you, Sungie,” Hyunjin offered. “But you don’t need them.

“Now?” Jisung asked, letting his fistfull of sand trickle between his fingers to the ground.

“Right now?” Hyunjin questioned. He’d kinda been hoping to motor back to the boat for lunch and also Jisung was wearing a sarong instead of board shorts today, making impromptu swimming lessons a little harder. He was going to suggest after lunch instead but Jisung was drawing in a breath to be offended again and Hyunjin quickly backtracked. “Yep, right now is great. Hyung can film us, can’t you Hyung?” he rambled.

Minho bent down to pick up the drone from where Jisung had landed it earlier and examined it’s propellers. “Depends on if Sungie has underwear under his sarong.”

“I do,” Jisung said, stripping the garment off to reveal matching purple boxers. Hyunjin wondered if that had been an accident because it wasn’t like Jisung to think about his outfits that thoroughly. Jisung took up a superman pose, hands on his hips, accidentally covering _himself_ in sand as he did so. “Are you not going to film now?”

Minho gave a weary sigh. “Well, it’s less fun now but sure, I’ll film. Gotta show Stowaway how much worse than me you are.”

“We’ll see about that,” Jisung said and dragged Hyunjin back into the sea.


	14. Chapter 14

“Whatcha doing, Channie-hyung?” Jeongin asked, leveling the camera at his weary boyfriend. He knew exactly what Chan was doing but they had to get the footage.

“I got a list,” Chan replied unhelpfully. He held out an arm and Jeongin slipped into the space by his side. Jeongin pointed the camera at the table and tilted Chan’s face towards him to give him a quick energy-boosting kiss and check him over. They’d just traversed the Panama Canal and it had gone smoothly once again but that was all thanks to Chan organising and coordinating local professionals to assist them. Chan’s face showed the stress and lack of sleep but hopefully he’d feel better in a couple of days when they got to the open ocean. That was where Chan came alive.

“A list of what?” Jeongin asked, letting Chan cuddle him.

“This one,” Chan said because the boat was covered in lists right now, “is legal stuff for the crossing. I need to make sure all of us and the boat are allowed to enter and exit all the countries we’ll visit and we pass all the customs checks. In the Galapagos we need a clean hull to dock so we’re not bringing in harmful species that will affect the local ecosystem and I need to make sure that’s done before we leave Panama. And Lixie and I have different citizenship to the rest of you so that changes what visas we need. I’m sorting all that.” The list so far covered two pages but next to the paperwork for the canal it would be a breeze. Chan had already ticked almost all of it off.

“And what other lists are there?” Jeongin asked.

“Grumps has the boat jobs one,” Chan said, flipping through a notebook left on the table to show the camera.

“That’s Minho-hyung,” Jeongin said for any new viewers that hadn’t learnt all the nicknames they used yet.

“Yeah,” Chan said distractedly. He ran a finger down Minho’s list. “So he’s got repairs written down here. The tramp netting needed reinforced. A bracket on the mast needed resoldered. That kind of thing.”

“What else,” Jeongin asked.

“Sunshine- uhh, Lixie- has the provisions list. He’s been prepping food and sending people out to get mostly a lot of tins.”

“A _lot_ of tins,” Jeongin confirmed. They’d be lucky if they lasted halfway to Australia though. He pointed the camera at the oven that had been on a lot over the last few days. Felix was baking brownies again and it smelled amazing. They weren’t for eating right now though as Felix was baking supplies for the crossing night shifts.

“I stole a cookie,” Chan admitted.

“I stole two,” Jeongin replied. Maknae privileges. “Is that all the lists?”

“Haha, _no.”_ Chan said humorlessly. “Minnie is on liquid provisions so he’s working with Lix in part but also making sure the watermaker won’t fail on us. It was serviced in America but still good to check and have spares for everything. There’s a lot of making sure we have spares. Bin’s on navigation- again, different way to navigate and different sources of weather prediction, just in case. He got the diesel too. Sungie is doing the sat phone and emergency supplies so he’s working with Bin and Grumps again. Hyunjin is fixing entertainment- downloading music and podcasts and films that everyone likes, and _you_ are team morale.” Chan pulled Jeongin into his chest and squeezed him tight.

“I’m doing laundry!” Jeongin protested.

“Yeah, that too,” Chan allowed. “But team morale is more important.”

“Than clothes?!” Jeongin asked.

“Who needs clothes when you’re miles from the nearest vessel in the middle of the South Pacific?” Chan joked. 

“Sweet, I’m stealing your grey hoodie,” Jeongin replied quickly and took the camera as he ran off towards Chan’s cabin. Chan’s yell of protest followed him but he slipped around Hyunjin on the stairs and escaped.

***

Jeongin made sure that later on in the day he was caught on the vlog wearing Chan’s fluffy hoodie and a shit-eating grin. Quality entertainment right there. And he was cozy- double win. They’d gone out in the city for the night- watched a movie, went to a restaurant, got turned away from a club because Felix looked like a child and the bouncer thought their IDs were fake- and the air had a chill to it as they walked back to the boat.

“I’m cold,” Hyunjin whined, hanging off of Seungmin’s shoulders and making them both stumble.

“Tough shit,” Minho whined back. “You should have brought a shirt that wasn’t see-through.”

“We were _supposed_ to be going to a club,” Hyunjin protested. “I am _properly attired._ And I would have worn my leather jacket but Han _stole_ it.”

“It is _our_ leather jacket!” Jisung yelled back from the front of their procession where he was strolling along cockily with his hands in his pockets as he watched Chan and Felix leapfrog over the bollards lining the promenade.

“You already share my bed and my lovers, leave me my jacket!” Hyunjin retorted. Seungmin shrugged him off for yelling too close to his ear and Hyunjin drifted for a moment before latching onto Changbin’s side. “Oh my god, you’re hot,” he mumbled and climbed onto Changbin’s back to make the most of Changbin’s radiator qualities. Jeongin was pretty sure he saw Hyunjin’s hand sneak down Changbin’s shirt to cup his pec and while it wasn’t the best move in public Jeongin really couldn’t blame him- they were nice to hold.

Changbin grinned smugly and hooked his arms under Hyunjin’s legs to hold him up. “Yeah I am.”

“Why is he getting carried!” Minho protested loudly. “I want carried!”

“You could have asked?” Changbin said, looking at him in confusion. Seungmin silently took Jeongin’s hand and quickened their pace before they became victims. 

Felix had stopped his leap-frogging and was now freestyle dancing down the street as he walked. Jisung was stopped to take a panning shot on his phone from Felix to Chan (still leap-frogging to impressive heights) and likely round to the argument behind them. Seungmin tugged Jeongin to the left so they’d stay behind camera.

“D’you not wanna be on camera?” Jeongin asked quietly as they waited for Jisung to finish.

“M’sleepy,” Seungmin replied, dropping his head onto the shoulder of Jeongin’s (Chan’s) fluffy hoodie. “Bed time.”

“Lame,” Jeongin replied but he was getting tired too. The next morning they were due to set sail for the Galapagos should the forecast not change drastically overnight and they could use a good sleep before shift rotations started. They’d have to steal Changbin back from Hyunjin and Minho too as he was currently carrying both of them. Jisung finished filming and they staggered onwards, Seungmin not bothering to move his head. 

“Sleepy babies?” Jisung asked, shoving his hand into the pocket of Chan’s hoodie to interlink it with Jeongin’s.

“You may only join the chain if you are sleepy,” Seungmin grumbled.

“I’m sleepy,” Jisung agreed. “I don’t know how Lixie still has energy.” Felix was moonwalking down the street in front of them and blew them kisses as he noticed the attention.

“Sugar high,” Seungmin said sagely. “Watch him crash before he brushes his teeth.” Jeongin wasn’t so sure because Felix hadn’t had any sugar since before they joined the queue for the club.

Seungmin was proved wrong because Felix was still full of beans when Jeongin went to bed. Jeongin took his kiss goodnight and firmly shut the cabin door to block his energy. Someone else could deal with that. As usual Changbin was in the middle of the bed and Jeongin crawled up to lie by his side and wait for Changbin to curl and arm around him.

“Ready for the crossing?” Changbin asked in the dark as they all got comfortable. 

“It’s gonna be fine, right?” Seungmin asked. He’d never done this crossing before. Jeongin and Changbin had once. 

“It’s gonna be great,” Changbin assured him. “We’re sailing to paradise.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no boat facts in this chapter only bio facts- haha you thought all my bio facts went into my bcc fics? no they cannot be contained
> 
> pupil dilation- when the black centre of your eye gets wider. this can happen for a number of reasons, most commonly it happens when it is darker so your eye can get more light... also, supposedly, when you look at something you love...

It was easy sailing so far on their way to the Galapagos, light winds, calm seas, clear skies. Chan had gotten visibly happier the further they sailed from the coast and now he was camped at the table with his laptop, writing a new song with the 3RACHA boys. Jisung had the guitar out so it was probably a ‘relaxed and happy’ song and not a ‘hyped and happy’ song but with those three it was never easy to tell. Seungmin stepped out to the covered seating outside with his glass of juice and his book for some peaceful reading but came across a strange situation.

“Look at the sail,” Hyunjin was demanding of Jeongin, sitting right next to him and staring intently into his eyes. Jeongin did as requested. “Back to me.” Jeongin met Hyunjin’s gaze. “The wheel. Me. That seat.” Hyunjin demanded of Jeongin one at a time. He briefly glanced up and saw Seungmin standing over them. “Look at Puppy,” he told Jeongin once he resumed his position.

“Can I stop yet,” Jeongin asked tiredly as Hyunjin cackled in glee when he complied.

“No. This is fun,” Hyunjin said. “Who else can we get?”

“What are you doing?” Seungmin asked. It wasn’t unusual for things to get weird on _The Broken Compass_ but normally the crazy hit a bit later than Day 2 at sea.

“Innie’s eyes dilate every time he looks at me,” Hyunjin replied proudly. “You too. Go get someone else.”

“No,” Jeongin complained and shut his eyes. Seungmin was interested now though and he stepped back inside to call Felix away from making lunch. They explained the premise to Felix and the Australian boy was happy to participate. Jeongin, less so.

“Baby, open your eyes,” Hyunjin said firmly. They were all gathered around him, Seungmin and Hyunjin on either side of his corner seat and Felix perched on the table.

“Don’t want to,” Jeongin grumbled. “I’m not a pet.”

“No, that’s Seungminnie,” Felix said teasingly. “Can’t you show me, Baby? Please.”

Jeongin opened his eyes. It was very hard to say no to Felix when he asked sincerely. 

Felix beamed. “Such pretty eyes, Baby,” he cooed to the young boy.

“Ok, watch,” Hyunjin said bossily. “Innie look at the mast.” Jeongin rolled his eyes but did look up to the mast. Seungmin watched closely but he was at the wrong angle to see Jeongin’s pupils clearly so he got up and rounded the table to kneel behind Hyunjin for a better view. Hyunjin took his hand and laced their fingers. “Can you see?” he whispered.

“Kinda,” Seungmin said back. It didn’t matter too much if he saw it now anyway. He could always test it at a later date when Jeongin was feeling more cooperative.

“Ok, Baby… look at Felix,” Hyunjin said loudly and Jeongin shifted his gaze. Seungmin thought he caught a slight darkening of Jeongin’s eyes as he focused on Felix but it was too fast for him to be sure. Felix, however, got a much better view.

“Aww, Baby. You _like_ me!” Felix laughed. He leaned forward and stole a kiss from Jeongin’s grumpy lips. “So cute!”

“Stop! You’ll mess up the results!” Hyunjin exclaimed, pulling Felix back.

Felix laughed again. “What? Like Innie will become too gay to function?”

“Stop thinking!” Hyunjin commanded Jeongin. “We’re not done!”

Over Hyunjin’s shoulder Seungmin made a show of licking his lips with his eyes hooded and Jeongin got distracted from Hyunjin’s tirade for a moment. Hyunjin noticed though, of course he noticed, because suddenly Jeongin’s mouth fell open and his pupils dilated further. Seungmin definitely saw the change that time. Hyunjin glanced sharply back.

“Seungminnie!” he admonished. “Not you too! Innie, stare at the sea and think pure thoughts. Seungminnie, put your tongue away.”

“Oh, yeah, like that sentence is going to help me,” Jeongin muttered sarcastically but he dutifully looked out to sea anyway.

“This reminds me of something,” Felix said while they waited for Jeongin’s pupils to reach their resting potential again. “ _I’m on a horse,”_ he mumbled to himself in English, his voice deep and rich like a film trailer.

“ _It’s a boat, babe,”_ Seungmin whispered across to him condescending. “ _You’re on a boat.”_

“ _Yeah, that’s right.”_ Felix said. _“With a **man**_ **__**_your **man** could smell like.”_

“We smell?” Hyunjin asked, only managing to translate some of Felix’s nonsense back to Korea.

“Goddamnit, what is it?” Felix muttered, ignoring them. “Now would be the time to have an internet connection…” Alternatively- “Chris!”

“ _Yup_!” Chan replied from the saloon at the same volume.

“Can I stop looking at the sea yet?” Jeongin asked.

“No,” Hyunjin replied.

“ _You’re on a boat?”_ Felix called through the sliding doors to Chan. _“I’m on a horse?”_ Seungmin was fairly sure that wasn’t a real question.

“ _Look at me!”_ Chan replied, doing a bad impersonation of Felix’s deep voice. Or perhaps it was an impersonation of someone else and Felix had been onto something after all. “ _Look at me, now look at your man, now **back to me.**_ **”** This _was_ sounding familiar. “ _Sadly, your man is not me._ ”

“ _What_ is happening?” Changbin asked. He’d been a bit slow to follow the conversation, having been distracted with his lyrics, and ended up with even less context than Seungmin. 

“Old Spice advert,” Chan said, in his normal voice again. “Why, Lix?”

“Hyunnie is making Innie do that to watch his eyes dilate. It’s fun!”

That had derailed the afternoon for everyone. Jeongin still had the strongest reaction though apparently Seungmin himself was a close second. Changbin’s eyes were more sensitive to light than anything else leading to claims that he was biased until they worked out that it was dependent on where the object of his affections was seated and Changbin was not, in fact, in love with the table. Chan, hilariously, had absolutely no reaction to anything and Minho made the comment that it was because Chan was in love with the boat, the sea, them- everything his eyes could land on. They’d have to wait until land to find out if that was the case. 

Eventually, the game got old and they went back to their earlier task. Seungmin had entirely forgotten about it until at dinner Hyunjin called him for what Seungmin _thought_ was assistance to pass a plate closer. He turned to face him and was met with Hyunjin’s grin and direct eye contact.

“Stop!” he complained, looking down at his dinner.

“Why? You love it,” Hyunjin said teasingly.

“I don’t,” Seungmin argued.

“Tell that to your eyeballs,” Jisung piped up from across the table. Seungmin glared at him ineffectively. His eyes really did give him away. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the old spice advert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw : v brief non detailed mentions of killing a fish and blood

“Hyung. _Hyung_.” Changbin opened his eyes wide and stared imploringly at Chan. “Hyung, don't. Please. Don’t you love me?”

In the background Hyunjin screamed quietly in delight. “He used the L-word!”

Chan bit his lip and held Changbin’s gaze. He was done for. Chan carefully set a card on top of the precarious pile in the centre of the table. “Pick up eight.”

“Whhhy,” Changbin whined, throwing back his head. He’d done so well in this game with Jeongin as a barrier against sabotage and he had a shot at winning with a good hand of five cards left. Unfortunately for him, the direction of play had been reversed. It was always a risk sitting next to Chan in uno.

“That’s not even a legal move,” Seungmin piped up as he always did and he was shouted down as usual. Still, it was nice to get some token support.

“Oh? Do you not have a plus two?” Chan asked Changbin innocently. “Do you have to pick up?”

“Fuck you, Chris,” Changbin said with feeling as he took his cards. He’d get Chan back for this.

He didn’t get Chan back because the order of play wasn’t reversed again so all his hits went to Jeongin instead, leaving Chan free to bleed cards.

“You didn’t say ‘uno’!” Jisung screamed as the turn passed Chan on his final card. In his excitement he’d stood up on the bench and accidentally shown his hand to half of the players with his pointing. “You didn’t say it! You didn’t say it! Pick up, pick up, pick up pick!!”

“I did,” Chan lied but Minho was already throwing cards from the discard pile at him. The cards went everywhere but Chan’s hands.

“Shut up. Take your cards, you cheat.” He’d thrown about ten even though Chan only needed to pick up four.

“Ok, ok!” Chan relented as Jisung continued to rain words of abuse down on him with glee. “Jeez. One. Two. Three. Four. Five cards now. See? Happy, Sung?”

“Very,” Jisung said smugly, plopping back down into his seat. He only had three cards left so he was in with a chance of winning but Changbin had seen that they were all different colours and he’d need a lot of luck to get rid of them now everyone knew what they were.

The game restarted and Changbin gave up his dreams of winning. He could only hope for the colour to switch to blue so he could reverse the direction and make life difficult for Chan. He deserved it. 

The opportunity never came because both Felix and Minho declared uno in the next turn and Seungmin’s attempt at sabotage was unsuccessful, crowning Felix the winner. Changbin was happy as long as it wasn’t Chan.

“That was karma,” he told his hyung. 

“Shut up or you’ll pay next round,” Chan retorted.

“Someone else sit next to Channie-hyung!” Changbin called loudly. “He's bullying me!”

“We’re all bullying you,” Hyunjin replied as he dealt out the next round. “You can stay next to Channie-hyung. I’ve already got Minho-hyung reading my mind.” He froze with his hand poised to send a card across to Felix. “Ah shit, how many have I done?”

“That’s Lixie’s sixth,” Chan offered and Hyunjin counted out the rest of the card with a frown as he tried to work out where he started.

“I _think_ that’s it,” Hyunjin said, placing the leftover cards in the bowl they brought out to to keep them contained when the boat rolled in a large wave.

“Eight,” Seungmin said, throwing a spare card at the bowl. A couple of others copied him but Changbin only had seven cards. He considered trying to get away with discarding one to be at an advantage but Chan would catch him for sure. He’d have to win fairly.

“Last game?” Jeongin asked. “I wanna go to bed.”

“Aigoo, baby,” Jisung cooed teasingly as Felix started the round.

“I’m not a baby!” Jeongin exclaimed. “I have the 4am shift! Just because you’re staying up late doesn’t mean all of us are!”

On long journeys they ran a double shift pattern for the night shift. Theoretically each person had a two hour slot between midnight and 8am that overlapped with two other people so there were always two people awake, with a shift swap every hour. However, Changbin often wasn’t sleepy at the end of his shift and chose to let the next person to sleep on. He wasn’t the only one and the shift pattern rarely went to plan. He wouldn’t be surprised if Jeongin just wasn’t woken up at all at 4am.

“Sorry, sorry,” Jisung laughed. “Yes, you can go to bed after this round, you responsible sailor.”

“Han, play a fucking card,” Hyunjin called impatiently and the conversation was lost as the game got serious.

***

Changbin took his shift at 1am. He didn’t sleep beforehand but got ready for bed in the time he had while Hyunjin and Jisung made chart predictions with Chan. They’d hopefully make landfall at some point during the light hours of the next day and they were far enough out that they shouldn’t cross any shipping lanes but it was wise to never forget about the radar for too long. Changbin’s first hour with Jisung saw no ships on the radar but they did loose the sails for a moment at the end of Jisung’s shift when the fishing line trailing out the stern suddenly went taught.

“Fish, fish, fish, fish!” Jisung yelped excitedly as if Changbin couldn’t work that out for himself. Changbin spared a glance at the radar to check they weren’t headed for trouble and then took the mainsheet out of it’s cleat to let the sail flap free before going to help Jisung with the line.

“Give it here,” he said as Jisung failed valiantly trying to pull the rod back. He was going to end up in the water if he wasn’t careful. “It’s big,” he noted as he felt the strain. “I hope we don’t run out of line.”

“Better not,” Jisung said, bouncing on his toes with excitement beside him. “Oh! The camera!” It looked like Changbin was reeling this fish by himself then. He let the fish tire itself out on the line a little before pulling it in and repeating the process and Jisung was back before the action. Jisung was full of enthusiasm and when Changbin got the reel in enough for them to see it looked like a tuna he cheered so loud Changbin was sure someone would wake up below deck.

“Love, the gaff,” Changbin reminded him urgently as the fish thrashed against the side of the boat. It was a big fish and he’d kick himself if they lost it now.

“Right, yeah,” Jisung said and the light of his head torch bounced around as he looked for the speared hook to get the tuna onto the boat. He got it on his second try and Changbin abandoned the rod to come hold the writhing fish down. Too many times had they landed a fish only to have it flop back overboard before they killed it and this one was a couple of feet long at least- well worth fighting for.

“I _love_ raw tuna,” Jisung commented as he took the hooks out and left Changbin with the messy work. He’d started filming again at least and his head torch was more powerful than Changbin’s making it easier for him to see.

“I know you do, Squish,” Changbin said fondly, using his old, and now rare, pet name for Jisung. It harked from a time where Jisung’s cheeks were fuller and Changbin’s less so and it wasn’t worth the teasing to call him that regularly anymore but when they were alone the sentimentality got to him sometimes.

“Do you think I can eat some now?” Jisung asked, crouching beside him to watch in fascination as Changbin cut into the side of the now-dead fish. Tuna were unusual fish to fillet because of their red meat and he had to let it bleed for ten minutes or so before he finished gutting it.

“In the morning,” Changbin said firmly. “You’re not having sashimi right before bed and it won’t even be cold by the time you have to go wake Lixie.”

“I’m not tired!” Jisung claimed. It was just the adrenaline though. In fifteen minutes he’d be yawning his head off and wanting Changbin to cuddle him.

“Go set the sail again,” Changbin told him. That would wear him out.

“I’m the senior sailor,” Jisung grumbled half-heartedly as he went to go do as he was told. “ _I_ should be giving the orders.”

***

By the time 2am rolled around though Jisung was happy to swap out with Felix. He’d lost hope of getting any tuna and to be honest it was generally pretty boring on night watch. Hyunjin and Felix were still awake in Jisung’s cabin and Changbin heard them murmuring to each other before Felix appeared and climbed into the navigation chair behind Changbin.

“Hi,” he said quietly and rubbed his face against Changbin’s shoulder blade. It was like having a cat. “Heard you caught a big tuna.”

“Mmm hmm,” Changbin replied. “Had to turn on the second fridge to store it.”

“It would have fit,” Felix said but he wasn’t really arguing.

“It’ll be eaten by tomorrow night anyway,” Changbin replied. “Sungie was salivating over it before we’d even got it on deck. Got any ideas as to how to cook it?”

Felix hummed thoughtfully. “Breaded steaks, fried? I think we have eggs left? And breadcrumbs.” They’d spent two full days at sea which shouldn’t be enough to run low on supplies but rationing had been lax because of how short the crossing was and eight boys could disappear quite a lot of food without trying too hard.

“I’d hide the eggs now,” Changbin recommended.

***

It was just as well Felix hid the eggs because Changbin was only vaguely awake the next morning when he heard yells of ‘Why is there no milk?! HAN JISUNG, DID YOU HAVE MIDNIGHT CEREAL AGAIN?’ Changbin remembered his own bowl of midnight cereal and the lightness of the milk carton as he put it back in the fridge, and turned over to go back to sleep.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you didn't get from previous chapters, Stray Kids fans here are called Stowaway(s) or St'ay

“Seriously, Sung?” Chan asked, his voice clipped. “We’re in one of the most beautiful places in the world and you’re going to stay on the boat?” He was mad. Jisung knew he was and it made him feel terrible but he still didn’t want to go anywhere. Today was a stay home kind of day, Jisung couldn’t help it.

“Let him stay,” Felix said soothingly to Chan, taking his hand to play with his fingers and distract him. “He’ll be happy here and we can tell him about it when we get back.”

“Fine,” Chan said, but his mood didn’t improve. “You can film the food stocks while we’re gone then,” he told Jisung.

“Yeah,” Jisung agreed quietly. He would have anyway but it hurt a little to be framed as a lay-about when Chan normally gave him so much respect.

Hyunjin gave him a hug and a kiss before they left and he got a few farewell smiles but it was all a bit of a rush because they were booked onto a tour. Nearly everything here needed a tour and Jisung didn’t want to go with strangers, even if six of his boyfriends were going with him. Chan was a raging socialite and Jisung just knew he would pal up with everyone. Jisung wanted some peace. Apparently that wasn’t an option in ‘one of the most beautiful places in the world’. 

When they had all cleared off he plugged his phone into the galley speakers to play a soothing background soundtrack and made himself an iced coffee. Only when he’d drunk half of it did he turn on the camera.

“Hi St’ay!” he said with quiet enthusiasm. “I’m just chilling at home today. Gonna do a few boat jobs, maybe edit a bit when the solar panels charge the battery some more later on, -oh!- and I need to show you the state of our store cupboards before Lee Know-ring comes home with the shopping. He’s been out sorting some port stuff and uploading a vlog. I think it’s the Panama one so if you’ve seen that-” he stuck his tongue out of the corner of his mouth as he concentrated “-that was now. Now was then? Anyway, that’s what he’s doing. And the rest are on a snorkeling tour. I’m sure you’ll see the footage.” Jisung didn't really want to dwell on that so he took the camera downstairs to start off the fun. 

“So this is our ramen cupboard,” he said, pointing the camera at an unassuming hatch. “Yes, we have an entire cupboard for ramen, what about it?” He carefully unlatched it and opened the door. Their stock was already running low, a sizable gap at the top where ramen used to be. He sighed sadly. 

“As you can see, we are in a perilous state.” There were still probably about thirty packets left, held down in a neat stack with bungee cord. “We stocked up in the states,” he explained. “And again a bit in Panama, but we can’t always find the good stuff. And out here we certainly can’t so this is about it until Australia.” He stared longingly at his favourite brand but left it where it was. Today was not the day to waste precious ramen. He swung the camera around to face the back of the door. “And here we have The Chart.”

On the back of the door was a very detailed chart with each of their names and notes of when they’d taken ramen and which type. Some were more valuable than others and they each had a quota, courtesy of Jeongin, who refused to miss out on his share again.

“As you can see,” Jisung told Stowaway, “I have eaten the most and Seungmin, that smug bastard, has eaten the least and is definitely going to gloat over it later when I run out.” Jisung would pout at him then, maybe offer some alternative rewards. Seungmin liked being righteous but he liked people begging him more.

“ANYWAY!” Jisung said, shutting the ramen cupboard before he could get more distracted. “What else can I show you?”

***

Jisung finished his filming obligations pretty quickly and then made himself some lunch and started editing the crossing footage. Crossing footage was always messy because there were short clips filmed by different people who hadn’t co-ordinated a storyline in the slightest and then some parts were blurry as hell or just delirious so he had to mark them to ask the cameraman at the time what the hell had been going on and if it could be saved with voiceover. Sometimes it could and it turned out to be the funniest parts because the emotion of the moment really shone through, but sometimes it was just bad footage.

He was only reminded how long he had been working when the boat rocked as someone stepped aboard. From the footsteps it was Minho.

“Ah, baby, you’re home,” Minho said, looking harried. “Great. Hold this.” He handed Jisung the tiniest brown squirming kitten and took off down the stairs.

Jisung stared at the kitten staring at him. And then it sunk in. “Babe! Did you steal a cat?!”

“No!” Minho’s voice echoed up from below. “I _rescued_ a cat.” He came back with a folder of paperwork and bent down to look at the kitten at eye level. “Hey, cutie,” he told her gently. “It’s gonna be ok.”

“Um,” Jisung said. “Do we have a cat now?”

Minho smirked. “Not yet.” He held up the folder before swapping out some stuff in his backpack to fit it in. “I’m going to get her chipped and vaccinated and passport-ed and stuff. Don’t tell Chan.”

“Don’t tell-” Jisung spluttered as Minho took the cat back and tucked her against his chest. “Are you going to keep her a secret?”

“For now,” Minho said. “I can’t give Channie a chance to get rid of her. If I do the paperwork he can’t say no.” Jisung was ok with that as long as it was Minho taking the fall. He reached out and used one finger to pet the kitten between the ears. She was very skinny but had the long legs of an older kitten and was very aware of her new surroundings, twisting in Minho’s grip to try and see more. 

“Where did you find her?” Jisung asked.

“In a creepy alley.”

Jisung squinted at him, guessing the answer to his question before he asked it. “Why were you in a creepy alley?”

“Creepy alleys are interesting,” Minho replied. “This creepy alley was especially interesting. She had a yoghurt cartoon stuck on her head and was meowing her head off. But now we’re friends, right cutie?” Minho said to the cat. “And you’re going to come be a sailor with us. Yeah? Doesn’t this place look fun?” He showed the kitten around the galley, letting her sniff things. “Anyway,” he said to Jisung when she’d had her fill. “I’m going to the vet. I might be a while.”

“Have fun?” Jisung said hesitantly. And then he remembered that Minho’s English was passable at best. “Wait, Hyung!” Minho turned and raised an eyebrow. “Do you want a translator?”

***

Pogos was a very good girl at the vet and she was rewarded with tuna when they got home. She was also bought a bag of cat food and another of litter, and a travel cage, and some toys and- To be honest, Minho had gotten a bit carried away at the pet shop but all of it seemed important to Jisung and Pogos was very cute so she deserved it.

Jisung was playing catch the feather with her when the boys got home. She had great murder instincts and Minho said that was probably why she had grown so big on her own. Jisung was very proud of her even though he’d only had her a few hours.

“Hi- umm,” Felix froze in the doorway. “Who’s cat?”

“Ours,” Jisung replied and held his finger to his lips, not that it was going to do much good to be quiet about it now.

“We have a cat?!” Felix said far too excitedly and crouched down to say hello.

“We have a _what?”_ Chan’s voice came from outside. 

“A cat,” Hyunjin told him calmly. He looked at Pogos and then leaned back out of the door to hold his hands apart in an estimate. “About this big, brown, says ‘meow’.”

“ _Minho…”_ Chan called ominously. He was out of luck. Minho had gone back out again to do the shopping he should have gotten when he found Pogos. 

“He’s getting the shopping,” Jisung told him, scooping up Pogos now the galley was full of new people. She was adventurous though and leaned out to sniff at Jeongin as he had a look at her.

“It was Minho though, wasn’t it?” Chan said, entering last and finally getting a look at Pogos.

“Yeah,” Jisung said. “He found Pogos with her head stuck in a yoghurt cartoon.”

“She’s very cute,” Chan allowed.

“We got her shots and chipped and a passport and insurance and everything,” Jisung said quickly, before Chan could add ‘and now she’s leaving’.

“And how much did that cost?” Seungmin asked.

“I have no idea,” Jisung replied honestly. Minho had distracted him with Pogos while he paid. “But _look,”_ he held Pogos up like the cub in _The Lion King_. “Don’t you love her already?”

“Not really,” Seungmin said grudgingly and left to go downstairs.

“Can I hold her?” Changbin asked quietly and Jisung nodded, carefully transferring Pogos to his boyfriend’s lap. She gave Changbin a headbutt and then turned her tail in his face so she could look at the more interesting things in front of her. The others were crowded around and Hyunjin had already found some ham to offer her. Pogos took it immediately and was rewarded with coos of ‘good girl’ and ‘so clever’.

“Pogos?” Chan turned to ask Jisung.

“Galapogos,” Jisung replied. “And she’s bouncy.”

“Good name,” Chan remarked and Jisung ducked his head shyly.

“Thanks.”

“I missed you today,” Chan said next, scooting back so sit next to Jisung while the others fussed over Pogos. “You would have loved the iguanas.”

“We’ll see them tomorrow too, right?” Jisung asked anxiously. He hoped so. He hadn’t meant to miss out on the wildlife. He’d thought it was turtles mostly and he’d seen turtles plenty.

“Should do,” Chan said. “You’re not going to back out at the last minute again, are you?” He took Jisung’s hand and laced their fingers. Jisung leaned into his side. 

“I just needed an alone day,” he mumbled into Chan’s shoulder.

“Ah,” Chan said quietly. “Sorry for snapping earlier- I should have realised. You were just so chatty at breakfast that-”

“It’s ok,” Jisung said. “It’s easy around you. It’s the other people..”

“We’ll flank you tomorrow then,” Chan offered, leaning down to plant a kiss on Jisung’s temple. “How abou-” 

He was interrupted by a demanding ‘mrrreow! are Pogos stepped across to his leg and dug his claws into his thigh. It was a good thing they’d had them filed down at the vet or Chan would be a bleeding sieve.

“Yes, _hello,”_ Chan said, his voice instantly switching to high-pitched baby talk. Pogos headbutted his chest and her purring kicked up a notch. It was an incredibly loud purr for such a small cat., like she had a tiny outboard motor inside her. “Oh, you’re _very_ friendly,” Chan told her as she stretched her neck up to try and headbutt his face. “But as friendly as you are you’re not sleeping in my bed. No. You’re not. I outrank Minho. I do, I outrank him and I will not let you come sit on my face when I finally get to sleep.”

“She can sleep in my bed,” Hyunjin offered.

“No she can’t,” Felix retorted. “ _I’m_ in your bed and it’s already squished.”

“I will swap you out for a kitten,” Hyunjin declared.

“I will drown you at sea,” Felix retorted.

“Do you see that?” Chan told Pogos. “People are willing to murder over you.” Pogos flopped down onto her back in the valley between Chan’s thighs and stared up at him. “And you don’t even care,” Chan told her, tickling her belly so she reached to capture his hand and bite it.

“Aha, perfect,” Minho said from the sliding doors. He’d sneaked up on them, like a cat. “She’s already won you over.”

“This is a terrible plan, Min,” Chan told him with a weary sigh. “Vets aren’t easy to come across, or consistent food.” It was just empty excuses. Jisung knew he was won over.

“I’ll handle it,” Minho promised. “All of it, I’ll handle it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry its been a while since i updated this or anything else. updates might stay a bit slow but hopefully it will be worth the wait


	18. Chapter 18

“You, me, Q and A, now,” Jeongin said, pulling Changbin from the pull-up bar mounted above the stairs down into the starboard hull.

“I’ve only done nineteen!” Changbin protested as he stumbled after Jeongin.

“Your biceps aren’t going to _disappear_ if you don’t finish your workout _,_ Hyung,” Jeongin scoffed.

“You don’t know that,” Changbin said, rubbing his arms self-consciously. “I used to be skinny, you know.”

“I remember,” Jeongin said dryly. “You were very pointy.” Changbin scooted into the bench at the galley next to him and jabbed at his shoulder with his chin. Jeongin fixed him with a withering look. He should have picked someone else for this Q and A. “Yes, Hyung, you are still pointy. Can we get on with it?”

***

“What do you miss most when living on a boat?” Jeongin asked, reading off of his collated questions.

Changbin puffed up his cheeks before exhaling loudly. “Lots of things.”

“I asked what you missed _most,”_ Jeongin repeated. “One thing.”

“Takeout?” Changbin said, uncertainly. “Even when we’re anchored at a marina it’s really difficult to get takeout.”

Jeongin hummed in agreement. Some of his hyungs were great chefs but their ingredients and appliances were often limited. “Real pizza,” Jeongin suggested.

“ _Yes,”_ Changbin agreed, practically drooling. “Fried chicken. Like, _Korean_ fried chicken.”

“You may think chicken would taste the same around the world,” Jeongin told the camera. 

“It does not,” Changbin interrupted him, leaning in close to the microphone to whisper ASMR-style. “Chicken does not taste like chicken. It’s all a lie.” 

Minho just so happened to be walking by as Changbin whispered that and he raised one perfect eyebrow at them silently.

“What do you miss the most when living on a boat, Hyung?” Jeongin asked him.

“Personal space,” Minho replied _immediately._ He leaned in to smile soullessly at the camera. “ _Personal. Space._ I would like to be able to watch an entire film by myself, just once. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? It’s completely impossible here. This one,” he pointed to Changbin, “Han Jisung, Bang Chan, Lee Yongbok, Hwang Hyunjin- they do not know the meaning of the word ‘no’.”

“But you love me,” Jeongin said smugly.

“You’re normally also trying to escape the mob,” Minho replied, neither confirming or denying the statement. “What did you say?”

“Haven’t said yet,” Jeongin told him. “Probably something really lame like ‘wifi’. For youtubers, we can’t really go on youtube,” Jeongin explained to the camera. “And most of the songs we listen to are downloaded so we’re never up to date with music either.”

“We get some wild radio stations though,” Changbin said. “Wait a sec.” He pushed Minho out the way and wriggled out from behind the table to go get their radio- not the one for communication, the one for music. He fiddled with it for a moment and there was loud static until he found a station and with a little adjustment a strong latin beat played out over the galley.

“Spanish?” Jeongin guessed as the singing started with a lot of rolled R sounds.

“Probably,” Changbin said with a shrug. “Let’s hope it’s not explicit. Stowaway will tell us though, right?” he asked the camera, turning the radio off again. “Stowaway, tell us in the comments if that was Spanish and what they were singing about.” They themselves were speaking in Korean but Chan, Felix, and sometimes Seungmin added English subtitles so their audience was a lot more global.

Minho had wandered off again and so Jeongin moved on to the next question. He had a long list but he hadn’t been foolish enough to think they’d get through them all. They always found a way to get distracted, even if it was just a couple of them together.

“Ok, Hyung,” he said seriously. “Thing you miss most about boat life on land?” 

Changbin pulled a face at the thought. They’d both joined Chan on the old monohull straight out of high school and so adult life on land was a pretty foreign concept to both of them. “Can I say the food again?” Changbin asked.

“You can,” Jeongin replied. “But I will send you away for someone else if you do.”

“Ok, ok,” Changbin relented quickly. “Being out in nature, maybe?” he said. “It’s very healing and cities seem so loud now. It’s easier to sleep when there is no internet connection and it’s really obvious when the sun sets and rises.”

Jeongin nodded. “We see lots of really nice sunsets and sunrises.”

“I don’t see the sunrises,” Changbin said.

“Well, _I_ see nice sunrises,” Jeongin said.

“I see the stars,” Changbin countered. “That’s one thing- because we’re away from light pollution the stars are…” he shook his head, unable to describe it. “I couldn’t believe there were so many stars out there the first time I saw a clear night out at sea. It feels like you could reach out and touch them.”

“SOMEONE IS TALKING ABOUT THE STARS!” Chan yelled from somewhere. It was like he had a sixth sense for it. “STARS ARE AMAZING!” 

Jeongin located him out the stern window by his second shout. “Go away, Channie-hyung! This isn’t about you!”

“It’s about stars,” Chan said, squishing his face up against the window to speak through it. Jeongin could see the yoga mat laid out on the hull behind him so he must have been doing a workout too. How he heard them with his airpods in, Jeongin had no idea. 

“It’s about what you’d miss most about the boat living on land,” Jeongin conceded before they got a whole infodump on stars. 

Chan’s eyes went wide. “Everything,” he whispered to himself.

“One thing,” Jeongin said sternly.

“Travelling,” Chan said. “All the different people we meet, places we get to visit, and food we get to eat.” He smiled at his memories. “ Yeah, the cultures. You can’t really experience that the same if you stay in one place.”

“He also wouldn’t have met us,” Changbin added, doing a flower pose to the camera.

Chan rolled his eyes. “Yes, and I wouldn’t have found any of my beautiful boys. But the question was about leaving the boat and obviously I’d take you lot with me.”

“You can try,” Jeongin retorted, sticking out his tongue. He waved Chan away. “Go back to your workout.” Chan blew noisy kisses at them through the window but went back to his yoga mat.

  


Jeongin had completely forgotten where they were in his questions and it wasn’t helped by Pogos who had finished her nap on the hyungs’ bed and was now sitting on the keyboard of the laptop Jeongin had been using.

“Pogos!” Jeongin scolded her ineffectively. “Get off!” She ignored him, knowing he wasn’t one of the people confident enough to pick her up. “Move!” Jeongin said, poking her in the side. She just turned and tried to bite him and he hastily drew him hand away.

“Minho-hyung! Your cat is in the way!” Changbin called out happily. He loved Pogos and wouldn't move her even if he could.

“Ah, she just wants to be involved,” Minho said, poking his head up the stairs to see. 

“Move her,” Jeongin said firmly.

Minho pouted. “No. She’s happy there.”

“She’s in the way.”

“No, she’s not.”

"I can't see my questions," Jeongin said petulantly.

"Pogos, what would you miss about boat life?" Changbin asked the cat, seriously. He leaned in closer and stroked down her nose. "Pogos?"

"Mrra," Pogos replied, lifting her chin for scratches. 

"Ahh, the attention," Changbin said. "Yes, the attention is good, I agree. You're upsetting Innie though. Do you want to come sit in my lap instead? I'll keep petting you."

Pogos's little outboard motor purr was going on full force now but she showed no sign of moving.

Minho laughed and came up the stairs to scoop Pogos up with one hand and deposit her on Changbin's lap. Pogos stretched as she was lifted, meowing indignantly and keeping her claws hooked into the keyboard as long as possible, but once she was settled on Changbin's lap getting more scratches she started purring again.

"There. Everyone is happy," Minho said, mockingly rubbing his knuckles under Changbin's chin the way he would with a cat. Changbin closed his eyes, smiling sweetly at the attention, and Jeongin saw Minho’s lips curl up in a smile too. It didn’t last for long though and Minho booped Changbin on the nose suddenly before leaving them again.

Jeongin turned to look at his questions again and got halfway through reading the next one allowed before he realised his notes had been tampered with.

“What is Felix’s sexiest-”

“Sexiest what?” Changbin asked, trying to stop Pogos digging her claws into his flesh.

“That’s not a real question,” Jeongin said, leaning closer to inspect the rest of his list.

“No, ask it,” Changbin encouraged him. “Felix’s sexiest what?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also I highly recommend listening to foreign radio. there is an app called Radio Garden. good fun


	19. Chapter 19

“Hello,” Chan said, smiling greasily at the camera, “and welcome, to the port side engine.” Hyunjin wriggled his foot from side to side on Chan’s shoulder in a very awkward wave. “Yes, and Hyunjin’s foot. It’s very crowded down here.” It was cramped, uncomfortable, and _hot_ but he wasn’t going to ask Hyunjin to leave to lessen any of those things. For starters, Hyunjin was holding the camera, and moreover, Hyunjin was holding the dual fan that was the only thing keeping the sticky air moving.

“Do you want to explain where the port side engine is, for any new viewers?” Hyunjin asked.

“Right,” Chan agreed.

“Left,” Hyunjin replied immediately, ‘correcting’ him.

Chan stuck his tongue into his cheek to prevent himself from ranting at Hyunjin like Hyunjin was baiting him to do. After a moment to calm his thoughts, Chan continued. “We are in the port side hull, or ‘left’ ‘side’ of the cat. More specifically, we are under Bin, Min, and In’s bed.”

“Universe Cabin,” Hyunjin added.

Chan turned to stare at him with tired eyes. “That’s not released yet.” Hyunin knew that. He _knew_ that because his own unit song was coming out at the same time and they were still working on it. Hyunjin continued to smile smugly behind the camera, sweat dripping down his face and sticking flyaway hairs to his skin. As soon as they were done with this they were going for a swim. 

Chan stared down the lens again. “You didn’t hear that,” he told their audience. They could always cut that part of the clip but it was probably a good thing to leave at least some teasers since it would be a while before they were in a good studio again to finalise the next album. “ _Anyway_ , we’re here, under a bed,” he hit the engine with the spanner he was holding so it made a satisfying clang, “fixing shit.”

“Trying not to break more shit,” Hyunjin said unhelpfully.

“ _Fixing_ shit,” Chan repeated. “And hopefully nothing is really that badly broken because it is impossible to get new parts out here.”

“We could always ask Changbin-hyung’s parents _really_ nicely,” Hyunjin said.

“That’s Plan B,” Chan said. He wasn’t even joking. If they needed a new part, or worse- a whole new engine- he would be contacting their parents with a loan proposition. Getting new parts flown to the middle of the Pacific wouldn’t be cheap but he reckoned they could make the money back with a tour, maybe selling some more merch. 

Nothing looked obviously damaged, smoking, or on fire so Chan went through the motions of trying to find the faulty component. He was pretty sure it was the starter. 

“Who on board has skinny wrists?” Chan asked as his hand got jammed again trying to disconnect the starter to take it apart. His arms were going to be blooming with bruises by the end of the week.

“Sungie?” Hyunjin offered. “He’s sleeping but he should probably get up soon and the others all went to the beach.”

“They all went?” Chan asked in surprise. Last he’d been aware of, only Minho and Changbin were preparing to leave.

“Innie and Minnie went on the paddleboards,” Hyunjin informed him with a grin.

Chan felt dread rise in his chest at the thought. Rationally, he knew those in the dingy would keep an eye on them and make sure they made it to shore, but he also had a horrible image of the pair of them drifting out to sea, completely unaware of it until too late.

“Why did you tell me that?” he asked Hyunjin. Hyunjin ignored him and extracted himself from the hatch with difficulty and a great deal of groaning- long legs were a handicap on a boat and Hyunjin suffered frequently. Once he was free he handed Chan the fan and set the camera precariously on a corner. 

“I’ll go get Sungie.”

Hyunjin appeared again a few minutes later with a fluffy, sleepy Jisung clinging to his arm.

“Good morning, Baby,” Chan told him softly. He really should be mocking Jisung considering it was two in the afternoon but his boyfriend just looked too cute.

“I hear you wanted a skinny wrist to fit somewhere tight?” Jisung said, smirking his signature smile even though his eyes weren’t fully open yet. Hyunjin giggled in delight at the innuendo, slapping Jisung on the back in appreciation.

Chan shut his eyes and tipped back his head to calm his mind yet again. Why had he been left with Hyunjin _and_ Jisung? It was an excellent joke, he would give Jisung that, but the camera was rolling and they made a family show. “Get out,” he told Jisung. They’d have to film that again. “Come in again and be less crass about it.”

“ _Come_ again?” Jisung asked as he and Hyunjin shuffled backwards to be out of shot. Hyunjin fell against the wall as the giggles hit him again.

“Ya!” Chan called. “No sex jokes!”

“Why are you here then?” Jisung replied startlingly fast. There was no way he could have been sleeping five minutes ago.

“Han Jisung,” Chan whined. “Please.”

“Ok, ok,” Jisung said, darting back into the room to press a kiss to Chan’s downturned lips. “Ok. I’ll be good.” Chan didn’t believe it for a second but Jisung scampered out the door again and came back in with Hyunjin without making any more jokes so he counted that as a win.

“Swim break!” Hyunjin called when they got the starter out to the outside table to disassemble it. He pulled off his shift in one smooth motion and dived into the sea. It was a beautiful dive- straight arms, head tucked in, body perfectly aligned- and he entered the water with hardly a splash. It was like something out of a commercial.

“We’re not done!” Chan told him but his scolding was losing its edge. The water looked so inviting, especially with Hyunjin now basking in it, the sun shimmering on his skin. Fuck it. “Yeah ok, swim break,” he announced, putting down the starter and the camera and following suit.

The water was deliciously cold on his skin and he spun a few times to savour it as the momentum from his dive wore off. This was what they needed after too long crammed in the hot and muggy hull.

“Good?” Hyunjin asked with a grin as Chan surfaced beside him. 

“So good,” Chan agreed, sweeping his hair back off his face. “Ten minutes though. Then we need to go see if the starter is fixable.”

“Fifteen,” Hyunjin bargained, sculling closer until they were breathing the same air. 

“Fifteen and no more,” Chan replied. He had no way of telling the time though so there was a good chance they’d be out here for over an hour. That was why he had been adamant they finished the task before any sort of break.

“CANNONBALL!” Jisung screamed from the boat and launched himself, entirely nude, in their direction. He made a decent wave, having had years of boat living to perfect it, and then doggy-paddled over to them and latched onto Chan’s back.

“Keep yourself afloat,” Chan grumbled as he had to put effort into his kicks to keep his head above the waves. This was not the break he wanted.

“Make me,” Jisung challenged him.

“Oh?” Chan asked. “Make you?” Jisung must have felt the rise in his chest because he screamed in protest just before Chan held his arms tight and ducked them both underwater.

“There’s salt up my nose,” Jisung complained later when they were mostly dried off and back to work.

“I wonder why,” Hyunjin replied sarcastically. Chan reached out without looking and caught Jisung’s fist before it could touch Hyunjin. Any other time he’d let them bicker but there were parts on the table in front of them that they needed for the engine to work and they didn’t have spares if they ended up in the ocean during a tussle.

“No,” he said firmly, returning Jisung’s hand to his lap. “Go get my toothbrush.”

“Why?” Jisung wanted to know. Chan ignored him as he focused on carefully removing the casing on the starter. Black soot spilled out onto the rag he’d set down. “No..” Jisung said as the fine teeth of the starting mechanism were revealed.

“Yes,” Chan said. “Go get it. It’s the red one.”

“Ew,” Hyunjin whispered as Chan gently tapped the end of the starter on the table to dislodge more of the carbon. Chan didn’t know why he was complaining- it wasn’t _his_ toothbrush that was going to be touching that.

Chan cleaned out as much of the carbon from the mechanism as possible with his toothbrush, under the watchful eyes of Jisung and Hyunjin and then pieced the starter back together again. The rotor should turn easier after its cleaning but there was no way of knowing if the soot had been the problem until they reattached it and turned the ignition. He placed the cylinder in front of Jisung. 

“Over to you, Babe.”

“You do know I’ve entirely forgotten what I unattached from where,” Jisung said , picking up the starter and feeling its weight. A lot of soot had come out of it but not enough to make it any lighter.

“I’ll show you,” Chan said tiredly, nudging Jisung’s hip to get him to stand. “Come on, back to the sauna, everyone.”

“I think you can film it yourself,” Hyunjin said, making no attempt to get up.

“I think you did such a good job up until now you should continue,” Chan replied without missing a beat. “Come on, the sooner this is done, the sooner we can go spearfishing.”

“Not true,” Hyunjin grumbled as he followed them below deck. “The others still have the tender so we can’t leave until they’re back.”

“I’ll radio them if they’re not back by then,” Chan promised. The sun was high in the sky by now so he doubted the boys on the beach would last much longer. The sand had to be burning by now and they’d be out of cool drinks. Minho and Changbin at least would have had enough of the sun and they were the two with authority (he hoped) to order them all home.

  


They refitted the starter and Chan stayed by the engine with bated as Jisung went to turn the ignition.

“Now?!” Jisung yelled down the stairs.

“Yeah!” Chan yelled back, after checking no limbs or bedding were near the engine. There was a long pause that dashed Chan’s hope before the engine chugged to life. “YES!” he screamed up to Jisung.

“YES?!” Jisung answered though he should really be able to tell from the helm if his engine was working.

“YES!” Chan said again. 

“ _IT’S WORKING!”_ Hyunjin screamed loud enough for the whole island to hear. “GENIUS CAPTAIN BANG CHAAAAAAAAAAN!”

“And his crew Hyun-” Chan started humbly but he was cut off by Jisung running down the stairs to scream, “GENIUS CAPTAIN BANG CHAN! SACRIFICED HIS TOOTHBRUSH TO THE ENGINE GODS!”

Chan waved his hand for them to lower their voices. It was a very small cabin and they were very close to his eardrums. “Ok, ok, thank you, boys.”

“We are men,” Hyunjin argued.

“Thank you, men,” Chan corrected himself. (It was easier). “Do you two mind setting the bed back up while I wash my hands and search for a spare toothbrush?” He left up his oil-covered hands to excuse himself.

“Then spearfishing?” Hyunjin asked suspiciously.

“Then spearfishing,” Chan promised. He certainly needed it after that ordeal.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm planning zero angst, minimal plot, posts whenever I'm in the mood, everybody is gay for everybody, chilling


End file.
